Nobody owes anybody a job. And if the government makes a job more expensive to give out, employers will automate, outsource, or have their existing employees become more productive.

Honest question: have you ever started a company that had at least 1 employee? Like a brick and mortar establishment? Did you ever have to worry about making payroll, wading through myriad OSHA regulations and Federal wage and labor laws, or the dozens of unexpected expenses that most people who start small businesses overlook?

The vast majority of new businesses will fail within 5 years. The people who started them will very likely have worked 80 hour weeks for a year or two with nothing (or negative net worth) to show for it. It’s easy to look at the companies that succeeded and ask them why they aren’t paying their employees more, but by focusing on the winners and not the myriad losers, you’ve already missed a huge part of the equation of why high minimum wages hurt the overall economy.

Ultimately, wages are function of two variables: the productivity produced by the worker, and the value-over-replacement of that worker relative to the other people in the workforce. Good intentions cannot erase this fundamental fact of worker compensation.