Education is not always a solution to higher income. In 2009 I was a manager at Walmart hiring people from the real estate and hotel industry at $8.15 an hour. Many of them had bachelors and higher, with previous incomes above $70,000. In Florida the unemployment checks were not that high, I think $275 a week max and maybe $300 with the temporary federal subsidy that was offered at the time. So some people preferred to work two jobs vs a low check. Just a miserable experience to go from $70,000 to two $8 an hour jobs.
Companies took advantage of this time to keep pay stagnant despite the fact in many of the industries profit was continuing to rise. What some people don't understand is that there are many billion dollar corporations that pay less than 20% in taxes. They use tax loop holes that are legal but really don't make any sense. For example they will claim an item to be both a debt and an asset over seas. PepsiCo uses three non-current liability category to deferred taxes on 2.3 billion in guarantee income.I recall the IRS suing them and PepsiCo winning.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/09/25/us-pepsi-tax-idUSBRE88O19R20120925#EUOXDvdBhB4BkUbf.97
Then you have companies like walmart that pay 39% in corporate taxes but yet so many of their employees are being subsidized by the tax payer. Though they are increasing their minimum wage to $10 and dept manager to $15 next year.
There is no simple solution hence my previous snarky $50 an hour comment. If minimum wage is brought up too high then CNA who take care of the elderly are not going to do that tough job when they can earn the same at McDonald. I will have to wait and see how Seattle does in the next few years. I'm interested on the impact it will have on teacher's pay and nursing assistant pay.