Minimum wage

I have often said that taking money from the rich and giving it to the poor will not work because there are too few rich and too many poor but there is a way that redistribution of income can work and that is by raising the minimum wage. Typically employees of fast food places and retail stores like Walmart are paid low wages and would benefit from an increase in the minimum wage. These outlets serve many millions of people and most of these are low to middle income people. If McDonalds raised the price of their hamburger by 50 cents they could double the wages of the non-management employees. If Walmart raised their prices by 6% they could double the wages of their non-management employees. Since the group paying the extra money is very large the transfer of funds would be significant. Instead of $10 an hour these employees would be earning $20 an hour. This is a transfer of wealth from middle and upper middle income groups to lower income groups. This will have little to no effect on the so called one percent since these people don’t frequent McDonalds or Walmart.