Working at minimum, living beneath it

Here's some food for thought from an article about state efforts to raise minimum wages:

Opinion polls show wide public support for an increase in the federal minimum wage, which falls far short of the income needed to place a family at the federal poverty level. Even the chairman of Wal-Mart has endorsed an increase, saying that a worker earning the minimum wage cannot afford to shop at his stores.

Right, there you go: it's blindingly obvious that Republican efforts to discourage the public will on the matter of minimum wages are just your usual plutocratic greed in action. But what about small business owners?

"Restaurants are a low-margin business," said Geoff Hetrick, president of the Ohio Restaurant Association. "A number of marginal operations which are more or less on the ragged edge right now might find this to be the straw that breaks the camel's back, especially in northern Ohio where they've had a significant loss in manufacturing employment that's taken a lot of disposable income out of the economy."

So in other words, minimum wage should be kept low so that restaurants can stay in business in areas where jobs have hemorrhaged and only the more well-off can keep eating out? Sorry, you get no sympathy here pal. Let democracy (and not obese lobbyists) alter the minimum wage as necessary to keep up with inflation, and the affordability of basic needs.