Two points:

1) I think there should be a lower minimum wage for teens under 18 who work. For them, $5 per hour would be just fine since most of them are just earning some spending money and they don't have to support themselves or a family. But for adults, minimum wage should certainly be much higher. Even $7 per hour is laughable. Minimum wage should be at least enough for a single adult to support themselves. And that leads me to my second point:

2) Minimum wage should be different in different places. Obviously someone living in rural Kentucky or Montana has much lower living costs than someone living in Manhattan. So then why should minimum wage be the same in both places?

I think a good solution would be for the federal government to come up with some sort of guidelines for a forumla outlining a minimum wage based on the living costs of each region of the country. Perhaps divide it up by congressional district. They could refigure this every 5 years when they do the national census based on that information -- the goal being that each district has a minimum wage which allows for someone who works there to live there and support themselves on that minimum wage.

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