text: would a minimum wage increase be negative or positive, and whichever it is, why?   an increase in minimum wage means that many people would loose their jobs.  the cost of continuing to employ the same number of people would increase when the minimum wage is increased in certain types of companies.  when the price of hiring more people (or keeping the ones you have) increases, your demand for those people goes down.  many companies would hire less people, if not fire some that alread have.