Remembering that a friend worked at a restaurant in the 1990s. Their main dishwasher had been working there since the 1970s, and had been able to buy an apartment building. The manager and most of the employees rented apartments from this dishwasher.

If people wonder why I, a business major, want wages to increase, this is why. Minimum wage in the 1970s was not a lot of money, but somehow, people could do a whole lot more with it then than they could/can with 1990s/2000s/2010s/current minimum wages.

And, yes, it will be hard on many !smallbiz organizations to raise employee pay rates. But many others, such as fast food franchises, are solidly profitable (or else, people would not pay millions of dollars for the right to purchase and run a fast food restaurant according to the franchisor's rules)