Let's check the economic impact of Biden's minimum wage plan with some basic econ.

In 2018, 1.8 people in the US had jobs at exactly the minimum wage of $7.25 or below it. For convenience, let's assume everyone was paid $7.25 an hour. For each hour of work, that's ~$13 million

Now let us assume that all 1.8 million worked 40 hours a week or 160 hours a month. At $7.25 an hour working 160 hours a month comes down to: $1,200 a month.

Or $14,400 a year.

The poverty line for 2020 for the US excluding Alaska and Hawaii?

$12,760.

Now bear in mind that for Alaska, it's $15,950 and for Hawaii it is $14,680.

Also, minimum wage workers for the most part get zero benefits. No retirement. No health care. And you're living at or below the poverty limit.

At $7.25 federal minimum wage. But how much in total?

1.8 million people, making minimum wage have an income of $14,400 a year is roughly:

$25,056,000,000

That seems like A LOT, right?

It's $25 billion a year.

So how much extra money would we require to pay everyone who works minimum wage $15 for 160 hours a month?

For that, we do $15 an hour x 160 hours a month x 12 months x 1.8 million workers = 51,840,000,000

That's roughly Five GAJILLION dollars.

Kidding. About $52 billion.

"That's more than double the total they make now!!!"

Yes. 52 - 25 = 27.

Companies paying minimum wage will have to fork over an extra 27 billion dollars a year.

So how does it affect YOU? Are you gonna have to pay Taco Bell $38 for a meal instead of $10?

Let's see.

A typical kitchen crew member at Taco Bell makes $9. Again, this is lower or higher depending on the locality. But that's about as much as Taco Bell pays. (go ahead, google, because I did).

Company owned stores have a total workforce of 40,000. Lets plug that in.

So:

$9 an hour x 160 hours a month x 12 months x 40,000 employees = 691,200,000

That's $691 million a year.

With minimum wage?

$15 an hour x 160 hours a month x 12 months x 40,000 employees = 1,152,000,000

$1.15 billion

Difference? $461.2 million a year.

And how much does Taco Bell make annually in profit?

$2.08 billion in 2019.

Now...

If they paid their workers $15 instead of $9, the profit would be reduced to $1.62 billion.

As you can see, profit has been reduced by about 22%.

So if you are paying $10 for a Taco Bell dinner, how much will you be paying more to increase Taco Bell's profits up from $1.62 billion back up to $2.08 billion because minimum wage is now $15?

You'd think, "Damn, that's not $38 instead of $10!"

But there's more...

To increase their profits back to $2.08 billion, you'd think the straightforward calculation would be to increase the price of the dinner from $10 by 22%. That's (0.22 x 10) + 10 = $12.2

That looks a lot better now, doesn't it?

This is of course simplified. A lot of things go into these calculations.

But as you can see, your Taco Bell meal will not go from $10 to $38 even if you repaid all the lost revenue to Taco Bell by paying more for your dinner. It'll go up to $12.2.

In fact, $7.25 is so criminally low, that many corporations just pay their workers higher.

Why? Why do you think McDonalds, WalMart and Target eat into their profits to pay people more?

Because it makes financial sense. If it made financial sense to pay them less, they would.

In fact, some corporations like Target already have a minimum wage of $15.

You heard me. Minimum wage at some corporations is $15. The increase in federal minimum wage neither burdens the consumer, nor does it seem to be hard to pull off by corporations.

But please. Don't trust me. Run the numbers yourself.