I've done my time(and then some)in retail...27 years in so far...

Here is my take on it from one who sells to the public at retail pricing.. Ok, so your government decides people need a raise to catch up with inflation(or so that is the excuse they tell you, when the truth is that they need to grow the tax base without enacting a tax increrase). well they are usually announced six months to a year before they take effect...or lead time. during this lead time retailers, manufacturers, raw material companies, energy companies, etc.. begin to increase their prices to offset the new wage increases. So i want you to think about thiss for a minute or so... raw material increases their pricing for steel, plastic resins, etc. Well the manufacturers now have an increase to their costs, both in material costs AND wages, so they increase the prices for their goods to offset these increases. So now, the wholesaler is paying more for the manufactured goods, and their wages...so you guessed it, they increase their prices to offset their increased costs as well... Finally, the retailers, the retailers have increased costs of doing business as well...except not only do they have to pay for increased merchandise costs, wages, but they also have to pay for increased costs of advertizing, insurance(all forms of insurance including property/liability/medical/shrink-loss, etc.), etc...

So lets say the government says workers need an 5% increase in wages over a 3 year period... you have to account for each part of the chain that incurred a cost increase. Not just the 5% wage increase, but the price increase for goods as a result of the wage increase. This can often cause retail prices to inflate 15-25% depending upon how much of the initial 5% wage increase is passed on(companies will absorb some of the increase in the form of smaller margins of profit for a short while, but eventually over time, increase the pricing models to return to the same levels of profit margins prior to the wage increases....

But i'm starting to get off of my main point... which is, The minimum wage is a ficticious wage to begin with. It was never meant to be a "liveable" wage but a standard minimum wage a single person could survive on... By the time you ever see 1 cent of that increase......Pricing is likely to have increased by 2% more than the wage increase you will recieve. Think i am wrong? ask an older person who began working 25 years ago and ask them if their wages buy more or less than they did 25 years ago... I began working back in 1985 for 3.85hr..... my wages, although far less than i make today bought more goods and services than my wages could ever buy today... unless a government decides to be fiscally conservative and runs a surplus, and inflates the value of their currency, your wages will contunially be worth less each economic cycle... any time you hear a politician talk about raising the minimum wage you should beat his ass, and tell him to cut spending and reduce the debt, before anyone gets a raise. your money will go much further if they would eliminate the debt... and add value to the currency...