Without a college degree your pay. Is capped at $40k a year which isn't enough in most areas to buy a house let alone have a family. Now that doesn't apply to everyone and some push beyond it but trade jobs for all but really good welders are basically capped at 50% more than poverty level for single people, and for under the poverty level for married with families.
So trade jobs equals poverty. Do you want your kids in poverty? What we need is not to boost minimum wage but to boost median wage. This country needs the 20million people earning 40k a year to earn 50k a year. That would boost the economy more than all the we combined did and would cost significantly less.