PaintedToeNail:
"If you raise the minimum wage across the board, the cost of goods and services will go up."
Again, do the math. Labor costs are about 20-30% of expenses in the retail sector (Supermarkets, hardware and department stores). If you were to double all wages the costs would go up by 20-30 cents on the dollar. That would allow for those who were earning minimum wage to buy more products and invigorate the economy.
In any case, how low would you go? How low do you think the minimum wage should be?