For much part of my life, I've had the misfortune of working at jobs that were indexed to the minimum wage. For example, my high school job cleaning stores had a wage set at 90% of minimum wage. After college, (I graduated during a rather nasty recession), I found myself working for companies that used the minimum wage as a salary base. For example, I would be paid 30 cents an hour over minimum wage.
Even some higher paying jobs are indexed to the minimum wage. I had contracted through temporary agencies that specifically set my pay rate to twice the minimum wage, and would refer to the percentage of minimum wage for all their positions.
These companies did not index their wages to the minimum wage in a Machiavellian attempt to oppress workers. They used the minimum wage as an index simply because it is a known value. They are not allowed to pay people less than minimum wage; So it is natural to use minimum wage for entry level, low paid positions. All other jobs would be indexed to this wage.
Unfortunately, since the minimum wage has not kept up with the economy, people whose wages are indexed to the minimum wage have a difficult time negotiating higher salaries. This artificial constraint on salaries actively prevents people from achieving a higher valuation for their precious asset, their time. With so many salaries set as a percentage of the minimum wage, this means that the minimum wage legislation has actually decreased the working poor and increased the wage gap between the rich and poor.
The set minimum wage creates an unnatural, fixed price for our nation's most valuable asset--human life. This unnatural fixed price is as likely to below the market price for labor as above the market price for labor. In order to help employees acheive their best potential, we need to find better ways to communicate the value of an employee's labor.
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