There's a lot of discussion revolving around increasing the federal minimum wage. It sounds good  and noble to put more money into the pockets of America's lowest wage earners until you consider the facts. Notwithstanding the devaluation of the dollar, we must consider all of the other implications of just such a move.

First, only about 2.4% of the American workforce are truly making minimum wage. Many of those are teenagers, the handicapped, and individuals working their way out of welfare dependency. Some work for small "mom and pops" who would love to pay more but for the fiscal realities of their business.

Now, using the example of a major fast food chain, 22% of their gross is allocated to labor. That's set in stone, and is the standard used for all franchises. This means, when you purchase a $3.00 sandwich, 66 cents is allocated to labor. If the federal minimum wage were raised to $7.50 as has been proposed, that represents roughly a 50% increase, meaning, at the consumer level, the cost of the sandwich would need to be raised 33 cents in order to maintain the same level of profit. Suddenly your $3 sandwich becomes a $3.33 sandwich. Substantial, but not huge.

But wait, there's more. See, the food to supply the restaurant is brought in by truckers who will need an increase to attract individuals to the trucking industry rather than the $7.50 job (truckers aren't making a mint). They will want an increase commensurate with that of the minimum wage workers. So will the workers who load the trucks, the workers who make the food, the workers for all of the utility companies who will be forced to increase utility costs. Basically everyone at every level will want an increase. A factory worker won't settle for $7.50-8.00 an hour when they could make as much flipping burgers without the responsibility. Suddenly your $3.00 burger becamse more expensive.

With the dollar worth less, the American consumer will spend less. Most businesses will not be able to match the 50% raise that the minimum wage earners are receiving, meaning many middle class wage earners will be making far less indexed against the inevitable inflation. Sadly, the gap between the truly rich in this country (many of whom will be insulated from the effects of this increase) and the poor will only WIDEN. All you will have succeeded in doing is making more poor out of the American MIDDLE class.

With less money being spent at the restaurants, jobs will suffer. Mom and pop businesses will close the doors because they can't afford to hire anyone besides, well, mom and pop, who aren't subject to minimum wage laws.

Many of the more liberally inclined pundits claim this isn't the case. They point to communities where the minimum wage has been raised and the fact that it hasn't hurt their employment levels. But they fail to point out that these communities are often those with above average cost of living and large urban population centers where there's a great deal of business to be had. They fail to notice small town America which is suffering badly enough because the cost of setting up business in these small towns is unnecessarily prohibitive.

The push to raise the minimumg wage on the surface is charming rhetoric, it really is. And it sounds perfectly altruistic. But in the end a minimum wage hike hurts most those it is designed to help and places a greater burden on the middle class. From a realistic perspective, it's a monumentally horrendous idea.