15$ an hour IS much for the effort and prerequisites putting on stage. Increasing minimum wage only creates automation and less jobs. Which increases the issue of unemployment.
History debunks these assumptions.
Minimum wage rise increases consumer spending power which in turn boosts consumption and uterly the economy, creating the facto more jobs. Fordism was exactly about that, Ford raised his workers wage, which uterly offered them the means to buy his cars; as a matter of fact his "doctrine" made America become the first world's economy, surpassing the British Empire that covered a third of the planet and had a fourth of it's population by 1913.
And automatation and technological progress have also always created more jobs and improved life quality since the beginning of times. I can't afirm for sure it will happen now, but history is pretty much cyclic, so let's hope it keeps workin the way it did before.
@Imperator
No one actually claims or defend that the minumum wage will increase from one day to the other. That'd be too dumb (for obvious reasons). The wage raising that already happened hasnt been like that, but gradual, it's doubtful that a federal raise wouldnt be gradual too.
