Investing 102

[LuxurySportCoupe]

I finally got to the 100 page mark in this thread, and I didn't want to comment until I finished them all. But I got into a "discussion" last night on facebook that may be of interest to investing 102, or at least got me thinking about the effect on stock prices. The discussion was about people wanting to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour (currently something like $8 here in Michigan). Since McDonald's has been mentioned a few times here, but it could apply to any retail/food company, I figured I'd ask, how do you guys think it would effect stock prices and dividend payouts? I would imagine dividend payouts would drop, at least initially, due to increasing costs, and therefore less profits. Not to mention the effects of every other sector that pays above minimum wage that may or may not give their employees a similar % increase in pay, and how much "disposable income" people in these sectors would then be willing to invest. If this becomes too political, feel free to delete it, the last thing I want to do is derail this thread. I just find it to be an interesting topic.