Dear fellow commenters: aren't you at all concerned with how sure you/we are on either side of this question, when economists are deeply divided? I suggest we all be a little less certain. I just browsed 50+ comments and decided to pop into Google and search, and what I take out of that is: nobody knows.  Economists disagree. 

Of course the US government is not the ultimate source of information, but still, the Department of Labor has a web page on myths : http://www.dol.gov/featured/minimum-wage/mythbuster . They dispute the "myth" (their word) that workers will lose jobs, and the "myth" that small business can't afford it. Seems like good reading for people who care enough to comment here.