When are politicians going to realize that a business only has a certain amount of money to pay for wages, payroll taxes and benefits.  If you force a raise in wages (or benefits for that matter) then there will either be less people employed or the people who are employed will work less, as this study shows.  And raising prices is not the answer as the market for a company's product or service is set by their customers who have competitive choices.  Econ 101, which clearly our polticians flunked.