nfgo3 :
Raising the price of something (oil, matzoh, unskilled labor) does not necessarily cause a decline in demand.
Sure, but any economist will tell you that if there are substitutes (and the good is not a Giffen good), the demand for the substitutes will rise and less of the good will be purchased. There is a substitute for unskilled labor called automation.
A question being debated is how much the minimum wage can be increased before the “some” substitution becomes a flood, so “many” workers lose their jobs (think substitution of labor, China and the rust belt).
The counter-argument for the “moral obligation” is that the government should raise the EIC, not the minimum wage.