Also, any time you mandate a wage increase, it is blatantly obvious that you're going to reduce entry-level jobs. Companies will eliminate many positions to cut their costs. I mean, when you force a company to pay more for people who don't have any experience, you're going to screw those workers because they just won't get hired.

And I agree that supply and demand tends to take care of wages in different areas of the country.

Congress needs to find ways to ENCOURAGE businesses to hire, not mandate employers to hire low-skilled employees at an astronomical cost.

Brent, in the end though it should not be the government who has to raise minimum wage. If the coporate world would give up some of the benefits of making money back to it's employees (from the top all the way to the bottom) the government wouldn't need to raise minimum wage. Why is it that PG&E declared bankruptcy, laid off people and then tried to give million dollar bonuses to the top people?

I now work for a man who pratices what I propose. Granted he loves his line of work and would more than likely do it for free. (Actually with the fees he charges he practically does). However we know that the three most important things in his business is not letting the government get more taxes than they deserve, keeping his clients from paying more than their fair share, and keeping his employees happy.

One of the ways he does this for his employees is by paying us a moderate wage during the year and at the end of the year taking the net profit and paying all of us a huge bonus, from the janitor all the way up. I get about 25% of my yearly salary as a bonus at the end of the year and I'm one of the lowest paid there. Can I make more somewhere else? Maybe, but this guy cares about his employees and we care about him.