yeah, let's take it away from the poor so the rich can buy more stuff at lower prices!
If you want to help the poor in the long run, you can't just pay them more money for the same work, you have to find ways to make their labor worth more.
"we'll have to take away your pay bump and any hopes for better pay, because the market decided you're not actually worth it"
"our billion dollar/year company can't afford to pay more without increasing prices for end-consumers"
A thing's value is the what two people agree to transact for.
A thing's value isn't dome statistical hand wave. It's a statement of fact. A dependent variable with a huge multiplicity of inputs.
If a laborer is not will ing to sell their time, which arguably, a great deal of American laborers probably shouldn't be right now given the rates many employers are offering and exploitive business models in use, Then the value is not defined.
Businesses can essentially name their price because there is a capital management complex that overall colludes to create an emergent that as a happy side effect for the actors within, leads to members being generously enriched.
The glorious absurdity to it all though, is that group is in part primarily empowered by us The enemy here, is us.
You can't escape basic economics. The supply of low skill labor is vastly greater than the demand, ergo real wages are low. The supply of housing is vastly smaller than demand, ergo real rents are high.