At an absolute minimum, it means that someone working full-time should never fall below the poverty line. Hard-working people should be able to afford the necessities of life for themselves and their families. Some call that radical. Likewise, a study of the Los Angeles living wage proposal concluded that it would not increase unemployment. These studies are described in more detail below.
Business always threatens that.
But they rarely do. Moreover, some corporations take the subsidies and then leave anyway. And service contractors, such as cleaning or security services, can't move out of the city where they work. A study in Baltimore found that the real cost of city contracts had decreased since the city began requiring service contractors to pay their employees a living wage. Another illuminating study looked at the original living wage proposal in Los Angeles.