Farther than any number less than $15 will, certainly.
Can someone explain to me how that will Not come to pass. I implore you to please use single syllable words and simple sentence structures, because as stated formerly; I must be a half-wit to not comprehend the incandescent brilliance of this economic revolution.
1. Wages are a small portion of the total cost of everything. For example, for a place like Walmart, the bulk of their costs is the products themselves (a lot of which are not even manufactured in the US, and thus not affected by minimum wage changes). The costs of running the stores can't be all that low, either. Increasing wages to $15 wouldn't make a huge difference to prices. They might go up a slight bit, but... it's simply not going to be that much.
2. Only 2.3% of hourly workers are paid the minimum wage. [0] (Although obviously, if increased to $15, then everyone below $15 becomes a "minimum wage" worker, meaning the percentage will be a bit higher) When you talk about increasing the minimum wage, you have to realise you're not actually increasing wages for everyone, only a small portion of people. Increasing them will not increase prices all that much, since it doesn't affect that many people to begin with.
Some prices would go up a bit, yes. But a lot of companies wouldn't be affected in the slightest, and so their prices wouldn't change, meaning the overall effect wouldn't be all that pronounced.
[0]: https://www.bls.gov/opub/reports/minimum-wage/2017/home.htm
I think by “everything” you mean consumer packaged goods? There are a lot of other things people spend money on.
The investment retail makes to obtain goods which will be sold for a profit, is Not comparable to doubling the cost of having those goods put onto the shelves.
> 2. Only 2.3% of hourly workers are paid the minimum wage.
My kids were paid about a dollar over minimum wage to scoop ice cream at their summer jobs, according to some estimates [0] this slight amount over minimum wage accounts for 30% of the workforce.
[0]: https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/01/04/5-facts-abo...
In terms of increasing the costs of goods because of increased labor cost, unless the human resource is the only cost, you're still better off. If you're paid $10 to make a $12 item, you need to work 1.2 hours to buy it. If you get paid $20 to make a now $22 item, you now only need to work 1.1 hours.