I own a business....not my first. I can tell you from personal experience that raising wages increases my cost to run my business...and since running a business is capitalism and the goal is to make a profit, I then have two choices - lower my expenditures in another area of my business or raise my prices to cover the increase of the higher wages. My goal is to be profitable so I can feed my family, pay my own bills and try to put some away for a rainy day.
Since I spend much of my time trying to find ways to lower my costs, the only way to lower anything to have any significant effect is to lay people off or shave what I can in compensation (i.e. lower my match to their 401k contributions, stop providing free soda/snacks/coffee/ANYTHING, etc etc...and they'll hate me for taking it from them). So while they may see a bit of a higher number on their paychecks, it's also increasing how much is taken out in taxes/soc security/entitlements which, in my humble opinion, what is really driving the 'raise the minimum wage' train -- dot gov wants a new pair of shoes...! ...or repay the state pensions...!
Point is, from a business owner/operator perspective, if you force a pay raise on me it makes it more difficult (if not impossible) to remain profitable. I'm going to have to lay people off and/or raise my prices to my customers who will in turn do the same to their staff/customers and on down the line it goes.....eventually the products on your Walmart shelves, in grocery stores, restaurants and other places you buy the things you use every day will increase by a similar percentage as the minimum wage increase.
States that don't force a minimum wage increase will be more attractive to business owners because, hello, operating costs are lower. And if I'm a business operating in a state that increases its minimum wage, my first thought would be to locate warehouse space in a neighboring state that doesn't have said minimum wage increase. I'd lease it, run my admin from my original office and just move the manufacturing/production to the new warehouse a state over. Keep my salary people where they are, put a manager on-site in the one-state-over warehouse and raise prices to cover the cost of having to move operations.
It's all perspective IMO. Those who have never run a business or have spent their entire lives working for someone else will want the minimum wage increased....most of who they know are in the same situation as them, so doing so will help not only themselves but most of the people they know and spend time with. Anyone running a business (no matter how small) that employs people will only think of the impact on their business's profitability and it's common sense that a raise of the minimum wage causes people to be laid off and prices to increase.
It's ironic...the increase in pay those making minimum wage will get won't be close to make up for the increase in goods & services will see within 2 years of the wage increase. They're just too short-sighted or ignorant to recognize it.
Minimum wage was never intended to be a career or a means to support a family....if those who feel so strongly that those making min.wage need financial help, they should get behind abolishing the payroll tax altogether so they get the intended raise without having to increase the minimum wage. But that debate will never be had because the powers that be in Washington are already running the country on a $500 billion per year deficit. If this country were a business, it'd be bankrupt....and if an increase to the minimum wage were forced upon that business..? LOL, we'd lose half our population.
/rant