The federal minimum wage should be increased

I know some people are forced to work minimum wage, but many dropouts have the opportunity to keep going in their education and chose not to because of the enticing pay and easier work. You mention people would be paid more, but you either get paid more or get paid nothing since many people end up getting laid off. I think it would be better if more people had jobs, but the jobs paid less then less people getting work but those who do get paid more. You mention we would get 9.5 billion dollars into the economy, but the quality of the economy itself would decrease, considering there would be less jobs and the jobs lack the quality they used to. This would make it harder for anyone to find jobs in the first place, hurting the economy further. It would be like pumping money into the economy, but getting nothing back in return. You seem to be focusing on just the benefits to the poor, while in doing so you are hurting everyone else. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, only about 5% of US hourly paid workers for for or below the federal minimum wage. Out of these, most are young, unskilled, high school dropouts. Consider this situation- the wage increases, and since they have to pay more the corporation has to fire some employees. Who are they going to fire; unskilled, younger people with a lower education, or educated people with more experience and skills? The choice is obvious! This would hurt the poor more than help them, because instead of a lower paying jobs they would end up with nothing. I get they can't get out of the poor cycle and some are unable to attain good education, but now they are completely unable to obtain a job rather than get one, albeit with low pay. But some money is better than none. So, we've established that minimum wage jobs are usually taken by unskilled and generally uneducated people who are poor. Since they are poor, they can't get a good education, so basically they are forced into a lower paying job. But why should they get paid more? Sadly, they are unskilled so they should do a basic job. Is there a reason to give these people more money for bagging groceries and flipping burgers? What i'm trying to say is the amount of money they get is proportional to the amount of work they do and how hard the job is. We'd be giving them more money for doing a basic job that doesn't take much intelligence to complete. Once again, this higher wage would hurt small businesses more than help them. Since they aren't a large corporation, they aren't as affluent and usually have lower pay for workers. Now, they have to pay their workers more. This would make it a lot easier for small businesses to go bankrupt, and they wouldn't be able to give their workers usual job benefits. Again, the quantity and quality of jobs would go down. Your main point is that a higher minimum wage would help people get out of a low income cycle, when it would do just the opposite. Many people who made low income would end up with no income since they had to get laid off, and small business owners who make less as it is would struggle to get by. Smaller/family businesses would definitely suffer. Sources- fff.org, Huffington Post News website