The real question here is why are low paid people unable to keep up with the cost of living.  What is pushing the cost of living higher than a minimum wage earner can be productive for?<p>The answer is taxes and regulations.  Taxes make everything more expensive.  Regulations choke supply of everything from energy to land.  Of course, some taxes and some regulation is necessary.  But the first thing to do is to stop adding more taxes and regulations.  Nobody can seriously believe that adding more taxes and regulations are going to make things better, so the first thing to do is halt and reverse direction.