In replying to a minimum wage spouter: The minimum wage increase can cause a reduction in staff mostly for smaller mom-and-pop-type stores because gross margins are usually smaller. A worker earning $10 an hour today and it moves to $15 an hour in the near future will result in a 30% payroll increase to a business. Multiply that by 15 workers and it adds up. A 30% increase in cost to any business under a worse case scenario can have massive ramifications to the bottom line. Most politicians who have never owned a business will not understand and only push for wage increases for votes.