I hate to be a contrarian here, I truly do, especially since I am quite liberal in my views, and I had been (and still am) a long-time admirer of Bernie Sanders, long before it became trendy to follow him, as I have admired for decades his dedication to principles, his thoughtfulness and intellectualism, and his dedication to fighting for basic human rights, like the basic right to healthcare and the basic right to a higher education, and yes, the right to a earn a decent living wage. But having said all that.... I am relieved the minimum wage hike did not pass. Why? Because I have several friends who with absolute certainty would have lost their jobs due to such a hike going into effect. Ask them whether they would rather keep their $10/hour job or have no job at all, kinda obvious which they would prefer.

Corporations never play fair, and they will always do everything possible, by hook or by crook, to maximize the bottom line profits, maximize the value of their stock options, and keep in place their multi-million dollar yearly bonuses. Hike the minimum wage that far, and they will respond "Okay fine, time for lay-offs." So, yes, some workers would hugely benefit from a higher wage, and some of their coworkers would drop to $0/hour, having no job at all anymore.

Corporations play dirty, they always will, so any effort to legislate them into treating their workers properly is going to face stiff headwinds. I would suggest a better tactic than pursuing a hike in the minimum wage would be to push instead for the "Guaranteed minimum income." And then, once that basic safety net is in place, recommence the war against corporations to force their hand and stop them from getting away with paying slave wages, because at least then, when the corporations play dirty and launch their lay-off counterassault, there will be in place a good safety net for the victims of this dirty war.

If, perhaps, some of the Democrats who voted against the minimum wage hike were thinking like I was... namely that it would equal very painful lay-offs at a time when too many people are too stressed as it is.... I think it too harsh to wholesale condemn them. Reasonable people can reasonably disagree, and there are reasonable disagreements to be had on what is the best way, strategically speaking, to move forward in raising people out of poverty.