Minimum wage is nowhere near living wage where I live. I do the math as follows:

Rent (for a two bedroom apartment) averages $1000/mo
Landlords require three times rent in income, therefore
Income must be $3000/mo.
$3000/mo, assuming 40hr work weeks, 4 weeks/mo, is $18.75/hr.

Minimum wage is going to be ~$12/hr at some point, but that's clearly not enough if you want to rent a two bedroom apartment, which is practical if you're a single parent with primary custody of multiple children.

That's not even getting into other high-dollar living expenses that the vast majority of the population has, like childcare and school loans.

But every time a raise is suggested, conservatives scream about how it will hurt small businesses.

Then, they turn around and scream at people for being on welfare.

You can't win.

Also the medicaid cutoff is $2800/mo. So, if you make a living wage, you'll lose medicaid but you might not be able to afford regular health insurance because typically it will cost hundreds of dollars a month (some of which may be reduced via tax credits) and have a giant deductible that you have to meet before coverage kicks in (so you're paying for the privilege of having insurance that doesn't actually cover anything). Yay.

Minimum wage needs to keep going up, but we also need universal healthcare and probably tax-funded higher education, as well. Unfortunately the current administration has no interest in making that happen and it's probably a good thing, because I don't trust them to not majorly screw it up.

The federal minimum wage has not been increased in the US in about a decade, still at $7.25 when in most areas a so-called "living wage" is much higher, about $12 and up. Most proposals for increases are to $15 but that has been on the table for years already and any proposals are likely to pass with lengthy "phase ins" and exceptions; by the time those happen it's likely the new $15 minimum will be too low.

I live in New York where the minimum is $10.40 except in New York City itself where it's $12 or $13 depending on employer size. So certain states and municipalities have passed higher wages than the federal minimum.

A minimum wages hurts two groups of people:

1. Employees who want to work, but their labor is not worth the minimum wage, so they are not hired. This in particular hurts the poor uneducated youths.
2. Employers who want to have work done, but having it done is not worth the minimum wage to them, so that work does not get done.

Congress last received a wage increase in 2009. The Federal minimum wage has been $7,25 since 2009 and $5.15 for ten years before that. Different states have raised their minimum wage while others have no minimum at all.
minimum[deputy.com]

Hahaha , South Africa does not even featured on this list. our min. wage is R20 per hour. justvabove starvation level ! That equals about $1.60 per hour !