It's a downward spiral though - with the individual elements feeding off each other. The jobless people and illegal immigrants who are being provided for by the government (which is provided for by the people who work) with money which is therefore not available to be used for other programs. The money, if there is not enough, is then created by the federal reserve, further devaluing the American dollar, which makes it even less likely that minimum wage will be a suitable source of income. However, jobs like McDonalds for instance start employees at $10/hour, which surpasses the federal minimum wage by somewhere around 30%. I lived on minimum wage for many years, and with the help of scholarships and student loans, put myself through school and now make considerably more than what I was making before.