Here is another thing we know now about raising the min wage. Over the past 10 years we've had a lovely natural experiment playing out across America. Due to prolonged inaction by Congress on the fed min wage (Rs hostile to raising the min wage) some state's began to aggressively 
raise their own, and withing some of these state's, some city's went even further. As you can see, the variation we now have is quite stark, with almost all Red states, as well as a few of the "swing" states still stuck at the federal floor, which is abysmally low at $7.25 pr hr.
There are some exceptions to the Red vs Blue rule- most notably AZ which has followed CA & WVA, which as far as poor, southern Red states is positively radical at $8.75. And for the 1st time in decades, wages for the bottom quintile of workers have gone up in the U.S.- due to the
rise of min wage in about 1/2 the country. The stubbornness of the GOP refusing to raise the fed rate has, however, punished the workers in the states w higher wages, bc the benefits for foodstamps, Sec 8 housing, Medicaid, etc are calculated based on the fed min wage, so workers
in states w higher wages (keep in mind, you need at least 10.10 an hr to be at place with inflation for min-wage & somewhere around $12 to be at a "living wage" (still living cheap). Along w the study RT'd here showing the benefits of not starving working people of a living wage
in terms of suicide, economists are also able now to access the effects of min wage on all kinds of stuff, from obesity to opiod addiction. And the variation among states allows economists to test questions about min wage raises such as the whether or not
raising the min wage causes job losses, whether raising the min wage is inflationary, whether it gives workers more spending power & thus stimulates the economy, and my personal favorite, which I planning on asking economists to look at, what
effect, if any, does a raised min wage have on the wages of the workers at the next two or three levels above the min wage workers. One argument often offered again the min wage, esp the $15 min wage, is that it would result in a "burger flipper" making the same $ as an EMT or a
pre-school teacher. And here I want to make a REALLY imp point. One of the reasons that America's EMTs and pre-school teachers, heck its regular teachers, are so tragically under-payed was this country's foolish decision not to tie min wage to inflation decades ago. This caused
min wage to get way out of whack, and in the process, it suppressed all the wages above it. People have focused on the fact that Congress has not raised min wage since '07, but it also hadn't raised it before '07 for a ridiculous time period. Now its time to pay the piper-esp the
states that dug in their heels and refused to pass their own hikes like VA. Many of the states that passed min wage increases have done so in ways that set different limits for urban and rural areas. It is definitely exciting to see what the data will show.
