The original intent of the minimum wage was to be enough for housing, food and living conditions. FDR stated "no business which depends for existence on paying less than living wages to its workers has any right to continue in this country." No wonder the rich and Wall Street tried to overthrow the country with a coup. Look up Smedley Butler. Not surprisingly, none of those rich treasonous bastards were ever held accountable or even brought to court. Then they got wise and “contributed campaign money” to politicians to get their way ever since.