When you have 17 employees and your all business model still revolves around paying them the minimum wage, then you are not really making profit from selling a

When you have 17 employees and your all business model still revolves around paying them the minimum wage, then you are not really making profit from selling a product/service, your all profit comes from exploring people (your employees) that are in dire need of food/proper shelter. Your business is not adding anything positive to the economy so you should actually close the doors and go work for that minimum wage you think it's so great. The only exception here is if you are just starting and you have very few employees (less than 5). In that case it is acceptable that you can only afford low wages, but that can be remedied with tax cuts for the first few years of a company with no need to still keep the minimum wage so low.