The US has nearly doubled its minimum wage before  In 1949,
President Truman prevailed over critics who said going from 40
cents to 75 cents an hour would be a disaster. It was anything
but.  By Jason Notte Aug 29, 2013 7:05AM People at work in the
Hitchcock chair factory on May 1, 1949 (© Martha Holmes/Time
Life Pictures/Getty Images)With fast-food and retail workers
striking on Thursday and over Labor Day weekend in an effort to
raise the federal minimum wage from $7.25 an hour to $15, surely
they realize the daunting odds against them.  After all, it's
not as if the nation has ever raised the minimum wage by nearly
that much, right?  Well, not in a while, but it has happened. As
The Huffington Post pointed out with some help from historians,
President Harry Truman got the nation's lowest-paid workers an
87.5% raise in 1949 despite a faltering economy and staunch
political opposition.  The U.S. had gone into its second deep
recession in a four-year span. Congress had refused to raise the
minimum wage from i