Ive skimmed through this thread.
My 2 cents on what the poster said is, Salaries differ due to the skill level of said job. A dishwasher has the lowest pay because their job takes the least amount of skill to perform. They also, in my experience have the fewest and least stressful amount of tasks to perform. They are also being paid for the knowledge needed to perform their task. A supervisor for ex needs much more experience, knowledge and skill to perform their daily tasks. Could a supervisor fill in as a dishwasher sure? Could a dishwasher fill in as a supervisor, most likely not.
Now, my other argument against higher starting wages is, lets say entry level for a job is $8 an hour. A company decides they need to start paying new employees $12 to attract a better pool of candidates. Now, what do you do with your employees that started 2-3 years ago and are making less than that? You bump up their pay to $12? You bump up their pay to whatever the margin is already between the pay scale of the 2 jobs? What if an employee comes to you and asks, instead of the pay per dollar bump, give me the same salary bump in percentage as you did to that other job, in the long run that could cost a lot more to the company. So for all those with the just pay more argument, what is your solution to not cause dissension with your other longer term employees?
Lastly, like some have said the bigger problem is an over inflated market bottom due to government interference. People are either wanting certainn benefits work from home or altered scheduled, or much more money than their skill level is actually worth based on their experience and knowledge of the job, company etc required to perform said task.