The lows are low, but the highs are home

diegueno:
The highest minimum wage in the nation is set to rise again in 2013, as San Francisco’s low-end compensation rate will increase from $10.24 to $10.55 per hour.
In 2003, voters approved a local ordinance tying the minimum wage to the regional rate of inflation in San Francisco, Oakland and San Jose. Set at $8.50 per hour when the law took effect, The City’s minimum wage has increased in every year but one since 2004.
City officials and low-wage worker advocate groups have long argued that increasing the minimum wage helps the local economy by giving service industry workers more disposable income to spend.
In addition, a 2004 peer-reviewed UC Berkeley study found that the rising minimum wage had no impact on jobs or the propensity of employers to leave the area. Instead, it concluded that restaurants in particular passed on increased costs to customers, with prices rising 6.2 percent for fast food and 1.8 percent at sit-down eateries.

(via San Francisco’s minimum wage will rise again to $10.55 | Dan Schreiber | Local | San Francisco Examiner)
A sterling example of how increasing the minimum wage does not hurt jobs.

If you’re American, you should really look at the way minimum wage is handled in Canada. I freaked out a bit when I watched the first episode of Morgan Spurlock’s 30 Days, where he said that the minimum wage in the US was around $5 at the time. In fact, if you’re interested, you should watch that episode. Basically, Spurlock and his then-fiancée tried to survive on minimum wage for thirty days. It’s been a while, but I seem to recall a terrifying visit to a hospital, too.

At the time, I was earning $8.50/hour (I think) working at a convenience store in PEI. I think this was slightly above minimum wage, and if I remember correctly, after working there for two years I was making a bit above $10/hour due to increases in minimum wage. And people still argue that our minimum wages aren’t livable (and in a lot of places, they probably aren’t).

Maybe it costs half as much to live in the United States. Somehow, I doubt it.

3Vigilante Theater·Source: sfexaminer.com