Should sweeping the floors at a grocery store or flipping burgers at a fast food joint pay a living wage? I don't think it should. And if you force businesses to pay a living wage, they will a) hire higher skilled workers that will be drawn back into the workforce with higher wages, and b) employers will automate low skilled workers out of the workforce.

None of that will help low skilled workers. I'd rather see us attack this through a more robust EITC / UBI program at the federal level.... combined with training of lower skilled workers to make them more productive/valuable to employers.

As far as the less than 1% making the minimum wage... here's a source. 82 million workers are paid an hourly wage and comprise 58% of the workforce. So total workforce is 142M. 1.6M workers make minimum wage. 1.6 / 142 = 1.1%. So I was incorrect that it is less than 1%, but the overall point still stands.