>Raising minimum wage will definitely force low end wages up but my worry is will it also raise prices by the same percentage (within some small timeframe) such

>Raising minimum wage will definitely force low end wages up but my worry is will it also raise prices by the same percentage (within some small timeframe) such that the employees buying power remains the same. Fortunately the recent increases in minimum wages in several US locales means that there is quite a lot of data available for studies that assess the impact of minimum wage increases on prices. For example, from "The Effects of Increasing the Minimum Wage on Prices: Analyzing the Incidence of Policy Design and Context (2016)" [0] >By looking at changes in restaurant food pricing during the period of 1978–2015, MacDonald and Nilsson find that prices rose by just 0.36 percent for every 10 percent increase in the minimum wage, which is only about half the size reported in previous studies. They also observe that small minimum wage increases do not lead to higher prices and may actually reduce prices. The interestingly-named page "$15 Minimum Wages Will Substantially Raise Prices" [1] from the Heritage Foundation cites multiple studies showing that a 10 increase in minimum wage will increase prices between 0.2% and 1.8% with most estimates around 1%. (Perhaps their definition of substantial is different from mine?) >Sarah Lemos of the University of Leicester surveyed roughly 30 studies conducted before 2005 examining minimum-wage price effects. These studies found that minimum-wage increases have relatively small effects on the overall price level. They reported that a 10 percent minimum-wage increase raises overall prices by about 0.2 percent to 0.3 percent. >Researchers at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago and the Department of Agriculture, published a study in 2008 examining how restaurants respond to minimum-wage increases. They used Consumer Price Index (CPI) data and examined the 1996–1997 federal minimum-wage increase. They found that a 10 percent increase in the minimum wage raises overall restaurant prices approximately 0.7 percent. Unsurprisingly, they found larger effects in restaurants that employ more minimum-wage workers. Prices increased twice as much—by approximately 1.5 percent—at fast-food restaurants. In lower-wage regions, fast-food prices rose 1.8 percent. >In 2010, Denis Fougère, Erwan Gautier, and Hervé Le Bihan, researchers at the Bank of France, criticized the econometric model that Aaronson and his co-authors used. [...] They concluded that a 10 percent minimum-wage increase raises restaurant prices by approximately 1 percent, although it takes one to three years for price increases to fully materialize >This survey records the price of a McDonald’s quarter-pounder, a regular Pizza Hut cheese pizza, and Kentucky Fried Chicken fried drumsticks across America. They found that a 10 percent increase in required starting wages raises the price of burgers and pizza by about 1 percent. Curiously they found little effect on KFC chicken prices. [0] https://www.upjohn.org/research-highlights/does-increasing-minimum-wage-lead-higher-prices https://www.upjohn.org/research-highlights/does-increasing-m... [1] https://www.heritage.org/jobs-and-labor/report/15-minimum-wages-will-substantially-raise-prices https://www.heritage.org/jobs-and-labor/report/15-minimum-wa...