Fair is a completely subjective definition, but I guess the idea is that through a democratic process society as a whole comes to an agreement as to what is 'fa

Fair is a completely subjective definition, but I guess the idea is that through a democratic process society as a whole comes to an agreement as to what is 'fair'. Instead of setting goals to pay people 'fairly' though, policymakers should be looking for ways to 1) make it easier for people to acquire 'middle class' jobs, and 2) make it easier for people to start their own business (remove employer protections + improved access to financing). There are 300+ million Americans that each have a unique perspective of this world. Each of these unique perspectives provide the opportunity to creatively solve a problem in a way that adds value to someone else, and start a business around it. Of course only a small percentage will, but that number becomes even smaller when you can't start your own firm because your employer has locked up your IP that's unrelated to its core business, or you can't save up the $5-10K needed to finance a prototype of your idea because your 'middle class' wages are too low. If you make it easier for more people to start businesses (read: not protect existing businesses), you create more jobs and the 'fair' wages take care of themselves. Also, by forcing 'fair' wages on employers, you further reduce the ability for someone to start a new business (specifically in retail or food service) because their burn rate is now higher due to higher labor costs.