It s been about seven years since minimum wage employees have gotten a raise, at least on the national level. Few workers would settle for that, but for some reason, giving minimum wage employees a boost would crash the economy   or at least that s what billionaire CEOs tell us. A new study, though, proves that raising the minimum wage doesn t hurt the economy at all.When conservatives talk about the minimum wage, it s always about  burger flippers  and about somehow, they aren t entitled to a living wage. They also like to compare minimum wage employees to the military, who also deserves a raise, but has many of their living expenses taken care of.The whole minimum wage thing is ridiculous, you shouldn t get paid $15 an hour to flip a burger. That doesn t take much skill.  Evan (@Evvaaannnn) May 5, 2016 @Allen33Devin @hannahc3rvantes if they raise minimum wage the next thing you know a burger at the same place will be like 8 bucks lol??  Joshua Jenkins (@j_j3rkins07) May 4, 2016Burger prices going up in Seattle-people will lose jobs. Supreme Court rejects challenge to Seattle minimum wage law https://t.co/b272KINMos  Sue C. (@Schairvo) May 3, 2016 Drones & insect like robots are gonna replace minimum wage jobs. Putting a burger together isn t complicated  Andy Cutright (@andycutright) May 1, 2016people want minimum wage to go up but these dropouts at burger king can t even understand the words  ketchup only  CR | FaZepod (@SpacepodPrime) May 1, 2016 Trying to get breakfast at a McDonald s AND Burger King this morning reminded me why the idea of a $15 minimum wage is an absolute joke.  Dennis Beaudo (@Bodowned) April 30, 2016Minimum wage is minimum wage. A burger flipper that burns burgers should not make more than an EMT that saves lives in the back of a truck.  Johnny Iceman (@TEbron35) April 26, 2016Republican politicians are slightly kinder in tone, but not much: Oftentimes when you have the federal government or others step in and start to raise minimum wage, what happens is you take away or reduce some people s opportunity to grab the bottom rung of the economic ladder to get the opportunities and the skills that you need to move up that economic ladder.    Kevin Madden on CNN s State of the Union When you raise the price of employment, guess what happens? You get less of it. Why do we want to make it harder for small employers to hire people?    John Boehner I think it is inflationary. I think it actually is counterproductive in many ways. You end up costing jobs from people who are at the bottom rung of the economic ladder.    Paul Ryan We re telling small-business owners that not only are we going to raise their costs by a buck and a quarter, but we re also going to raise it with these cost-of-living adjustments. Here s what s going to happen: They re going to have to lay people off.    Gov. Chris ChristieIt s easy to be smug and dismissive about the people who serve our fast food. Fast food isn t about people, or really even food. It s about jamming the most calories into our mouths in the shortest period of time.While food service accounts for a large portion of minimum wage workers, there are many other industries that also pay minimum wage and only about a quarter of the people making minimum wage are teenagers. Many are single white women, often single mothers. With the exception of some of the teens, every single minimum wage worker is struggling to pay their bills and Republicans reading this (and unfortunately, some Democrats) are still shrugging their shoulders. After all, the poor aren t really people, are they? Besides, cheap burgers and made in China Walmart clothes are far more important.Well, the National Employment Law Project just proved, through 78 years of research, that increasing the minimum wage does not increase prices. In fact, during that 78 year period, whenever the minimum wage was increased, employment increased 68 percent of the time.In those industries most affected by the minimum wage, employment increases were even more common: 73% of the time in the retail sector, 82% in low-wage leisure and hospitality. These basic economic indicators show no correlation between federal minimum-wage increases and lower employment levels,  the authors write.In fact, if anything, the data suggest that increases in the federal minimum appeared to encourage job growth and hiring.Perhaps even more striking, of the only eight times that total or industry-specific employment declined after a minimum-wage increase, the US economy was already in recession (five times), technically just emerging from recession (twice), or about to head into recession (once).Source: Business InsiderWe would have about 11 million more jobs today if Congress had allowed a minimum wage increase when President Obama began asking for one.Featured image via Kena Betancur at Getty Images. 