Man, I had a whole long post detailed about how absurd your numbers are, but VgChartz ate it up on my phone.
Long story short, the average person is absolutely terrible with their money, and paying them more won't fix the situations you indicated. As people who are bad with money make more, they just tend to make more stupid money decisions.
With my long post, I had removed approximately $1,000 of your expenses that are absurd. minimum wage people don't need 2 $15-20k cars, the insurance rates seem absurd compared to what I've ever paid even for brand new vehicles.
Cc payments and student loan payments shouldn't be applicable to the situation we are referring to (as minimum wage jobs do not generally require college degrees, and CC spending indicates you've busted your budget). You should also however add about $100/mo for other clothing/misc expenses.
All of this being said, I do wholeheartedly believe the federal rate of $7.25 is absurdly low. I also think $15/hr is too high (for a minimum wage). In MN, the minimum is $9.65, but it is rather difficult in the metro to find a non tipping job for less than $12-13/hr.
They should then just tie the minimum to inflation so it stops being such an issue.
Money can't buy happiness. Just video games, which make me happy.
