There is of course still a black market
Most restaurants you go to to eat would have to close if they needed to employ their workers legally. Same thing applies to bars and similar venues.
Source: worked in that industry 10+ years
A minimum wage is a ban on certain baskets of compensation for work.
It doesn't prevent 'exploitation', whatever that means. Companies fiercely competing for labour is what you want here.
No, it's not.
stage 1 is it hammers profit margins <-- for 95% of businesses we are here.
Stage 2 is then it increases prices <-- only affects very low margin businesses which are a small minority.
Stage 3 is it triggers job losses <-- to my knowledge it's never been raised high enough to make this happen. maybe $50 / hour would be the threshold.
Businesses adapt, raise prices and do more automation to keep their margins, which have been remarkable stable if you look back. The losers are consumers and workers, because everything costs more and salaries don't rise as fast.
> Stage 2 is then it increases prices <-- only affects very low margin businesses which are a small minority.
Every mom and pop shop is a low margin business. Most business are low margin, only a few have a really high margins, the ones we all know and talk about.
>Stage 3 is it triggers job losses <-- to my knowledge it's never been raised high enough to make this happen. maybe $50 / hour would be the threshold.
I can only recommend you expanding your knowledge. It's like saying why do we need car seats for babies, because when we were younger we didn't have them and did just fine. Of course those that didn't make it aren't here to tell their story.