You seem to be assuming that it is the decision of the business to keep the employees in poverty. They might be able to afford to run a business that employees

You seem to be assuming that it is the decision of the business to keep the employees in poverty. They might be able to afford to run a business that employees fewer workers, which is the opposite of the intent. It's one thing for a business to fail due to market forces or poor choices by management/owners. It's another for a business to pushed into closing, thus employees losing their jobs, by a government mandate that attempted to make the employees' lives better. That's the initial wave of negative consequences that I said would have to be survived before the positive results would come to fruition.