And for all those struggling, who may not have access or opportunity or even intelligence for college? In a country like this I think minimum wage should reflect a standard of living that is at least able to buy food, clothes and shelter. If you work that should be the least that you should expect.
You still can't overcome the fundamental economic reality that if wages go up prices will follow, and if prices go up the increase in wages doesn't actually gain people anything. If the people currently on $8/hour start getting $15/hour what do you suppose will happen to the people who are now on $12/hour? Will they be satisfied moving from 150% of minimum wage to 100% of minimum wage? Or will they get bumped up to more like $22/hour, in which case what about the people who were on $20/hour? You'll inevitably get a degree of compression in wage differentials but fundamentally it's not as simple as those currently on minimum wage getting more.
It's easy to devalue the currency, and all it does is tricks people into feeling better off for a while until they realise they didn't actually gain anything at all and stop spending again. Along the way you crucify people who have saved their entire life, and people on a fixed income. And so as the currency devalues the minimum wage won't buy any more than it does now, it will just involve bigger numbers. And along the way anyone who is unlikely to ever add enough value to justify paying them the new minimum wage is condemned to a lifetime of unemployment.
