when productivity increases, when profits increase, is there a reason that the minimum wage should not increase as well?

A sustainable wage actually reduces the cost for the employers, and keeps people employed.

Had the minimum wage grown at the same pace of incomes going to the top 1 percent of the taxpayers, the minimum wage would have stood at $33 an hour before the recession in 2007.

I have to say, you have now switched your argument from what it was going to do to your business, to what it is going to do to the economy.

Despite the speculation, what the numbers show in terms of what employers actually did is that we are not seeing job losses.

What I think we keep hearing from the Restaurant Association is that if the minimum wage goes up, that jobs will go down.

Some of the money undoubtedly is cash and FedEx, but we just had two witnesses who sat here and every single thing they described went through the American banking system.

But if it happens gradually----it does not have the visibility and the powerful impact.

I think we could probably--get the police to respond.

I hope there is a special circle of hell for the people who prey on our seniors in this way.

I would just be grateful, as we go forward, to be able to learn more about this and find out what is being done at the regulatory side, and it is for all of the scams here that attack our seniors.