If wishes were horses, beggars would ride…
 

And if, according to leftists, the government forces an increase in the minimum wage, we would automatically see a rise in “the incomes of millions of working families.” And “(f)or businesses across the country, it would mean customers with more money in their pockets.”
 
Right? Not exactly.
 
Oh it sounds good to the low-information voter, which of course is why the President threw it into the State of the Union address last night. But it’s really a fallacy that hiking the minimum wage will help the economy, or even improve the lives of low-wage earners.
 
Here’s a great little video that does a wonderful job of explaining the reality behind the wishful thinking:
 

Like most leftie proposals, increasing the minimum wage sounds great. But it’s really just an empty promise that most often does more harm than good.

 
In fact, the very concept actually has its roots in racism…
 
Obama’s Minimum Wage Fallacy: Golden Intentions Does Not Mean Golden Results ~ Interesting article at Mediaite that discusses the historical beneficiaries of the minimum wage movement ~

To wit: back in 1931 when the federal government debated the merits of effectively setting a minimum, union-level wage for government-contracted work, the law’s proponents openly acknowledged that it would prevent black construction workers from competing with the all-white labor unions…
 
…Overtly-racist supporters of the law got their way, and evidence shows that black unemployment began to deviate from white unemployment shortly thereafter.
 
Economist David Henderson notes several other examples of politicians being not-so-subtle about who would be the victims and benefactors of a mandated minimum wage hike. During a 1957 Senate hearing on the matter, Sen. Jacob Javits (D-NY) openly acknowledged that the northern-state industrial white worker often had to “unfairly” compete with the cheaper “colored worker” from the south.

 
Related:
A Simple and Wrong Answer to Poverty: Increasing the Minimum Wage ~ Further explanation from The Foundry – Heritage’s blog.