When the minimum wage goes up, the need for cheap labor goes away. Cheap labor is illegal aliens. Higher wages means the businesses will hire less workers to do the job for the same price it cost them for more cheap labor. This means less production and less money for businesses and fewer taxes paid and fewer donations (pay off) to government leaders. Good for workers bad for businesses and government. That is why a minimum wage law has been hard to pass and businesses will lose their cheap illegal work force.Keeping the minimum wage down benefits the businesses & illegals because poor Americans cannot afford to work for the amount illegals work for and business prefer to hire illegals instead of Americans.
It benefits in some way the poor Americans who do not have much money to buy except that the business can keep their prices down because of hiring illegals .
If the minimum wage was raised it would benefit the poor Americans who would take the jobs and the businesses could raise their prices and the poor Americans would make more money and afford to buy from the businesses still. By hiring Americans, it would put the illegals out of jobs and they would go back to Mexico and not cross the borders for jobs and in turn we would have less poor people in America that take advantage of the system such as school, medical, dental and hospitals, and all areas of the system that cater to the poor, etc.
Illegals are mainly poor anyway and minimum wages keep them poorer. Illegals are taking jobs from the poor and not jobs that Americans will not take.
It is rhetoric that illegals do jobs that Americans want take. Americans did those jobs at one time when there were no illegals . They all do not work on farms; they work in all aspects in America. As a result poor black and whites turn to crimes to survive. Illegals send billions back to Mexico which is Mexico's economy. That is why President Fox do not complain when they cross the border to work. But in the long run Mexico will lose if illegals are given amnesty because they will bring their families here from Mexico and the money sent back to Mexico will stop and will hurt the Mexican economy.