Please, if you think the minimum wage should be raised, read these two items about "unintended consequences", both via Wonkbook at The Washington Post.
BARRO: New York's new fast-food minimum wage makes no sense. "The raise would apply only to fast-food workers, and only if they work for a chain with at least 30 locations. A wage increase applying to such a narrow segment of the economy is bound to have unintended consequences. ... A business owner who previously ran chain fast-food franchises might choose instead to open independent stores so he could avoid the wage requirement. If he already has 29 stores, he might choose not to expand. If subject to the requirement, he could install iPads at the counters to take orders instead of live, wage-earning humans. He could buy food that is already prepared by an outside vendor (who wouldn’t have to pay the higher wage) and employ fewer workers in the kitchen. Economists call these changes 'distortions,' and they cause two kinds of problems. One, fewer workers get a raise as a result of the minimum wage. Two, it encourages businesses to do things that customers may not prefer." The New York Times.
McARDLE: Upstate New York can't afford the new minimum. "The median hourly wage for New York state is only $19.65, meaning that fast-food workers will now be paid 75 percent of the median for doing work that involves so little skill that it is frequently performed by teenagers who aren't old enough to drive. And in the poorer regions, that disparity is likely to be even more stark. ... The rural north is so economically depressed that prisons are fondly regarded as sources of employment, and the deindustrializing western portion of the state has many of the same problems, plus large brownfield areas from long-departed factories that no one can afford to clean up, and a structural overhang of buildings, government programs and people left over from flusher times. The more young people depart in search of work elsewhere, the worse the problems become." Bloomberg View.