Not sure who is downvoting everything on the other side in this discussion. I'm not saying that I'm against minimum wages - just that to credibly propose them,

Not sure who is downvoting everything on the other side in this discussion. I'm not saying that I'm against minimum wages - just that to credibly propose them, it would help to explain why you don't set it at $50. I think for social good it really might be the case that 15$ is reasonable; but the argument "I want to raise the minimum wage because I care about doing good-looking things for people" receives extra points in debate because it looks virtuous, and will tend to be overvalued. Similar proposals like "Punish X crime more harshly" or the opposite "Let's let people out of jail early out of mercy", or "let's just make food free" also sound good initially, and are totally valid policies to consider - once we include all the hidden costs in the calculation of whether it would actually help!