homer is right on target. It’s all about votes by an ignorant uneducated public that thinks they’re actually getting something. It’s not the wages that count, it’s what those wages can buy.
Increasing the minimum wage does two things; 1. It’s inflationary so the net effect is the buying power is diminished; 2. it causes layoff, since most people getting minimum wage are teens or entry level jobs whose purpose is to train people for the workforce.
In the case of a small businesses like a pizza shop, where they have a lot of employees and the business owner makes a decent living, but is certainly not getting rich, raising the minimum wage erodes his income, since he can only raise prices just so much, he will lay people off to compensate.
The same applies to most mom and pop businesses. Even larger businesses will make adjustments to compensate.
The bottom line is that raising the minimum wage harms the very people that it was designed for. If an employee produces more and is worth more money, they will get more than minimum wage anyway, but when it’s raised, a business owner is forced to raise most hourly wages in some proportion. It could destroy some small businesses.