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-...