Prices don't go up because of the cost of wages. Prices go up due to demand. If there is more demand than the price will go up. Think of gasoline, diamonds and gold, mechanical service.
I am not an economist but I can tell you that minimum-wage is bad for the economy. I don't know about social services in Canada so I can't really put this too much other than the United States.
So tell me, what do you do? Do you build something? Do you sell something? Do you own your own business? Do you provide a service? Do you sell to other businesses?
In the US, Walmart was ranked as the lowest paying company followed by McDonald's. Both of these companies also like to keep their employees under the minimum hours required for the employer to provide healthcare. So, someone who is earning low low wages and not receiving enough hours to really even provide for themselves, do you think they are buying what you build or sell or the service you provide? People who earn decent wages often end up buying a home. They may buy a car. Maybe they buy a grill to barbecue on. Or a pool or Jacuzzi. When they buy a house it employs the contractors and the furnace builders and the lumber yard and the landscaper to put in the lawn and the real estate agent. When they buy a car it employs the sales person and the mechanic and the car factory workers. It will also employ the people who make the filters and wipers and bulbs and the trucker who transports them. When they buy a pool it employs the contractor who built it and the plastic manufacturer who created the lining and the people who make the chemicals to maintain it as well as those who built the net or the toys that go in it. All of these people may end up buying a house or the car or the barbecue and our economy continues to cycle. flourish, and grow. When people are paid decent wages they are also paying their fair share of taxes. Those taxes employee our firefighters and our law-enforcement agents and our public health officials. Their taxes also maintain our roads and bridges and employ those people who maintain them. When people make low low wages with not enough hours to support themselves they rely on the government and the taxes of others. Personally I would rather have a lot of people paying into the pot with very few taking out than to have the very few putting in and a lot of people in need taking out. You go to McDonald's and order a Big Mac. The cook, The counterperson, the one taking your order at the drive-through, and the one cleaning the bathroom, are all paid minimum-wage. They are most likely eligible, and receiving government assistance. That means we are already paying more for the Big Mac whether we eat at McDonald's or not. McDonald's corporate is one of the highest income and profit companies in the world. Personally, I'd rather pay the eight cents or $.10 more that studies have shown than to subsidize the payroll of McDonald's and Walmart and all of these other places.
