Raising the minimum wage does not get anyone out of poverty or necessarily raise the standard of living of the population on average. I own a business that can profitably employ three people at a certain wage. Government imposes a new minimum wage above the wage I currently pay. My business is no longer profitable, so I either fire one person and pay the other two more, or I lose profits and pay myself less. This kind of thing does not create wealth, it is only a smoke screen produced by those who are incapable of increasing the wealth of a nation. A nation is better served by Government staying out of these things.
"the minimum wage is a violent imposition on the freedom of association that harms all of society in the long run. The US has been blessed by the fact that pressure to increase the minimum wage has been resisted at the federal level for many years. If we care about reducing unemployment and retaining the conditions for future prosperity, we had better not make the mistake of increasing it. If Congress had any economic sense, it would repeal all these laws forthwith." - Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr
See
http://www.mises.org/story/1344 for more.