Minimum wage increases out of reason, say rapidly doubling it as proposed now, has a number of ill effects. Before you all stand up and start shouting, I won't address any potential "job losses".

What DOES happen is shortening Hours Worked and in some cases workers replaced by automation. Shorter work weeks benefit no-one except the employers. Shorter work weeks relieve the employers from the necessity to provide benefits and result in an overall productivity increase.

Automation requires investment in process which will stay in the future. Workers displaced by automation will not come back to work in their same capacity. True, many can be retrained in other fields but the entry level jobs will be gone forever. Those that feel the pinch will be the least educated, the poorest and for those of you professing to "care so much" the immigrants escaping the tyranny of lower wages in their home countries.

Of course wage increases are a given but such increases must be measured, not slugged.