Watch Rachel Maddow Highlights: July 15 | MSNBC

The idea of minimum wage jobs is outdated.  It used to be that minimum wage jobs were jobs that were expected to be held by youths who were still living at home and therefore could afford to accept these low wage jobs.  Today we no longer have an economy that offers minimum wage jobs to children still living at home and we now find these jobs being held by older people living on their own and trying to raise families on these low wages.  Even while the companies that are offering these jobs are no longer "mom and pop" outfits but are instead huge multinational conglomerates and other large publicly traded corporations.  

Meanwhile corporations enjoy paying low wages here in America where there are laws that limit what government can do, unlike overseas where governments exercise considerably more power with fewer restrictions.  Which is why they resist raising the minimum wage, because they either don't want to take the jobs off shore, or, more likely they can't.  But they can easily afford to pay higher wages, but why should they?  When their employee's can make do with the low pay by qualifying for public assistance, the corporations appreciate the public subsidy.