The only "magical property" I claimed, is cash in your wallet, funded by taxes. I'm not sure what other magical properties you were expecting. My proposal is that instead of increasing the minimum wage, we beef up the amount of support provided by EITC

You suggested that this existing tax credit that we've all been accustomed to since the '70s was a suitable replacement for a decent wage. Completely aside from the SUBSTANTIAL increase in cost it would take to make the numbers fit, what leads you to believe that an annual tax refund is an appropriate substitute for a regular paycheck? Do you expect them all to save it all in a bank account and only spend a set weekly amount? If they were in a financially stable enough position to pull that off, they wouldn't be working at McDonald's.

He stated that it _could_ give workers $15/hour, not that it does. (It maxes out adding a little over $3/hour.)

You can get a Notice of Withholding to get the credit in your paychecks instead of at the end of the year. I don't know how well it works.

It's clearly possible in theory to get $15,000 on April 15 and $15,000 from McDonald's and live the same lifestyle as someone who makes $30,000 from paychecks. I could manage it easily, it's basic consumption smoothing. Should be able to borrow against the credit if necessary, too, since it's guaranteed.

It doesn't have to take the form of an annual tax refund. It could take the form of lower, or negative, paycheck withholdings. The hard part is making sure that people don't end up owing a bunch of money at tax time, of course, because they're not going to have it lying around.

Looks like we’re all talking about essentially UBI (Universal Basic Income) here... which I at least think is the solution to a lot of this!

There's a difference between UBI and something like EITC, in that UBI applies to all adults, whether working or not, whereas EITC is explicitly targeted at people who are employed but do not make what one would consider a "living wage" based on their situation (number of kids, etc).

Depending on the structure of the rest of the tax system and on whether the UBI phases out or not, the effective marginal tax rates can also be quite different, though this part can be massaged to make the two options look identical, I suspect.

But the core of the difference is whether employment is explicitly encouraged (EITC) or not (UBI).