Among the responses in your editorial advisory board's comments
on the proposed rise in the minimum wage is the "caution" that
"it is a bad idea to raise the minimum wage faster than
productivity or inflation."  A few moments with an Internet
search engine brings the information that the maximum of that
wage came in 1968, and if it had risen with inflation since then
it would be at least $9.22 (using the modern computation), and
computed like inflation was then, $10.52.  If the wage growth
had matched the growth in the average production worker's wage,
it would be $10.01, and finally, if it had kept pace with
productivity growth, it would be over $21. Even if minimum wage
workers were shared just a quarter of that growth, the minimum
wage would be over $12.  The minimum wage (to quote the title of
the report from which these numbers were drawn) is too damn low.