There's actually a great way to track that - look at the cost of a Chipotle burrito in different cities. The price for a burrito in San Francisco went up with perfect correlation when the wage increased in San Francisco. The reason it's particularly useful for Chipotle is because they are entirely corporate owned, which means there are no franchise owners distorting the data (or rather, franchises are independently owned and many are not well run, and restaurants with lower prices would be used as data points to justify the wage increase when that restaurant may in fact be failing).

Not too long ago it was part of my job to analyze the minimum wage hike and how it will effect fast food restaurants. Like most things in the real world, the nitty gritty details are complicated. The gist of it is that fast food restaurants in the United States are going to become even less profitable as the minimum wage increases. And in an industry where it's considered great if your margins are 5%, that can be pretty bad.

Don't minimum wage people purchase slot of fast food? Wouldn't a minimum wage hike lead to increased sales to offset the hike?

I repair alot of I. T. At many major chains so I visit them regulary. They seem pretty efficient and an extra $20 an hour of labor costs doesn't seem like a game changer. Especially if it reduces turn over or improves employee moral. Would definitely hurt something like a stake n shake.. 24/7 operation and tons of kids.

Interesting! I like this method.

Edit: Can we see the results of your analysis anywhere? That would be super interesting.

Actually maybe it didn't come across clearly, but I was saying it would be ideal if the article actually gave some kind of useful information such as the fake example that I provided. You are actually asking me the exact question I wish to ask of the person who wrote the original article.. basically can they please provide a real example versus the whole "the unemployment rate is low and the minimum wage is high!" and no mention of the obvious correlation vs. causation argument.