[helpPeople]

Not sure your area, but unskilled labor goes for 15$/hr in metro Detroit.

You cannot get people to show up for less than that.

Source, wife owns a business and that's going rate to answer phones.

[michaelmrose]

Because people can't live much of a life on less. This is especially true of health care which in places is free at some level of poverty and ruinously expensive at other levels. At some points working harder actually earns you greater poverty.

[gowld]

Could you expand on the relation of that fact to the topic of minimum wage? Is $15/hr above or below Detroit minimum wage?

[adventured]

Walmart is commonly paying $12-$13/hr to first year employees around the US, Target is at a minimum $13/hr ($15/hr in 2020), Amazon is at $15/hr. Those are, broadly speaking, the new floor in American wages.

In cities, companies almost always have to pay more, so Walmart's wages on average are even higher in Detroit than in the middle of nowhere. They hoover up a lot of labor near or above $15/hr in places like Detroit.

Basically his wife's business is competing with massive labor absorbing machines that will pay at or above $15/hr. They also offer benefits. Small businesses (mom & pop types) that pay low wages and have tight margins often struggle to offer even basic competitive benefits, it's a very large additional cost in a business. So if she wants to take employees away from Walmart in Detroit, she might have to offer $18/hr instead.

[roflchoppa2]

is it difficult for your wifes business to make money, and pay your employees at $15 (or more)? Serious question.

[helpPeople]

Maybe in a few years it will be easier. After 2 years she's only made 6k profit.

[xinsight]

If it is difficult, then it's not a very good business.

Serious question: Why would you want to run a business that can only survive by paying people poverty wages?