How many minimum wage workers are there? If you only look at the number of current minimum wage workers there may not be many, but we are talking about raising the minimum wage to $15. That means everyone under $15/hr is affected. So, I think the real question is how many people are making less than $15/hr. I skimmed this article http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_income_in_the_United_S... and it seems that median personal income is somewhere around 30K in the US. Well, $15/hr of full time work is about 31K. Therefor the number of people who will see a rise in their wages is potentially very large. So, I think that the problems with price increases are a real issue.

Another issue I thought of is this. If min wage workers all suddenly have wage increases by law, then businesses like fast food chains might just replace many them with machines. I mean, you already know your McDonald's burger is disgusting, so probably wont mind if it gets pooped out of a dispenser like pudding. So, this policy may simply lead to layoffs.