"Still, economists on both sides tend to agree that the minimum wage itself isn't that big of a factor for America's working poor. For one thing, many of the people earning the minimum aren't poor at all; they're teenagers or middle-class part-timers looking for extra income.

The working poor tend to earn more — because they have to if they're supporting a family. For them, the benefit of recent minimum-wage hikes has been relatively small, especially when compared with other anti-poverty programs such as the federal Earned Income Tax Credit."

http://www.npr.org/2012/01/03/144594861/raising-the-minimum-wage-who-does-it-help

Another telling article is this opinion piece. The person who actually owns a business says they are going to have to increase their margin by about 7% to stay afloat. I liked how the recent graduate complained about the cost of living, naively thinking that raising the minimum wage somehow wouldn't contribute to increased prices.