The main reason Amazon is paying a $15 minimum wage is because of substantial pressure from progressives - there's an extensive record of this. The media reporting has largely been coverage of Bernie Sanders and the like, so it's pretty clear that there are non-media folks who have been driving it.
Artificially putting a floor under the price one's allowed to charge for one's services benefits only politicians proposing such populists ideas and the non-working.
Spoken like someone who's far away from minimum wage. One would think it also benefits the people who receive the wage increase, yeah?
My country has a $20 minimum wage, and yet the unemployment rates, small business survival rate, and inflation are all around the same levels at the USA, so all the talk of impending economic catastrophe if we give poor people a few more crumbs seems to be hot air from where I'm sitting.
That sounds like an argument about "if one's time is worth less than minimum wage, one cannot find a job". And sure that is true for some people, but saying it benefits _only_ ... sounds like it is never good for any worker, which is way too strong a conclusion, because other situations exist.
For example: hiring one of two candidates, Nick and Joe, would be profitable under 30$ per hour. Nick asks for 15$, its Joe's first job so he's willing to take 10$, I go to Nick and say, "look Joe will do it for 10, so I really can't justify paying more, but I'd prefer to pay you those 10, since you're experienced". If Nick has a better offer elsewhere, he has no problem. If not, Nick gets just 10.
If the state says 15 is the minimum wage, not only Nick but also Joe must get 15, so my best move is to take Nick at 15. Clearly, a higher minimum wage _can_ benefit the worker, and not only the very weakest one.
Capitalism allows each participant to seek only the best available deal that is agreeable to them, sure, but availability is subject to negotiating power, and that is distributed very unevenly.
