While the overall impact of minimum wage increases on prices is far from settled, history has not shown it to lead to the catastrohic increases that are oft-foretold by opponents.
For instance, one full year after Washington's wage increase, we aren't seeing marked price increases [0].
If the effects of the wage increase on businesses was as profound as the doom-sayers wanted us to believe, then a year is certainly more than enough time to have seen them.
>they can hire fewer people
An expanding economy (which is partially fueled by higher incomes), helps to offset displacement of workers. Further, it's not as if businesses were seeking to hire workers they didn't need in any case. In fact, the ever-striving for optimal efficiency and productivity combined with automation is largely to blame for the lower labor demand/stagnant wages that precipitated the need for an increased minimum wage in the first place.
[0] http://www.washington.edu/news/2016/04/18/early-analysis-of-...
It's an old saying that democracy depends upon an informed citizenry, but what happens when the citizenry doesn't act in accordance with the information?
It's been "wisdom" for so many years that low taxes and low minimum wage results in increased employment and better prosperity for all. Guess what. It hasn't worked.
And it's a stupid argument to make when productivity is such an important measure that never gets factored in. How productive are workers who can't afford to properly live ?
This is the "big lie" about the minimum wage.
Reality is that profits get hit first and profits get hit hardest.
Business lobbies and restaurant associations spend millions lobbying to prevent minimum wage increases. That would be completely irrational behavior if they could just pass on the costs to the consumer.