MSNBC, Up with Chris Hayes, Feb 16, 2013

Excerpts (video links below):

Chris Hayes: You actually met with the President along with small business owners. My understanding is that this came up - specifically minimum wage.

Lew Prince, Owner, Vintage Vinyl, St. Louis: Yes. … The President sat down in the room with a dozen small business people. and literally said what can I do for you? The first thing that one of us said, the guy that owns Uncommon Goods in Brooklyn - raise the minimum wage to ten bucks. In unison the other dozen of us said yeah.

… They seemed surprised. We gave them the reasons. It is exactly what he said in the State of the Union - which is putting 300 bucks a month in the hands of customers is the best economic stimulus the country can have and that money tends to get spent in local businesses ...

[What about the argument that when you raise the minimum wage inflation goes up]

Prince: … The portion of wages in costs is actually relatively small and even in manufacturing and a whole lot of areas, it is relatively small. My overhead is complicated and large. And the minimum wage - the wage is actually a small part of it. … This is a great secret - prices in America are not set by the cost of making something or doing something. Prices are set by what market research tells most companies you are willing to pay. Ten bucks for a beer at Yankee Stadium is not because it costs more to get it there then to the bar across the street where it is two bucks. ...

[large corporations, not small business, more likely to pay minimum wage]

Prince: Keeping the minimum wage low forces small businesses to support their competition - to underwrite their competition. I will give you an example. In Missouri we have Missouri Health Net. … [In the] first quarter of 2009, Walmart workers used $4.25 million of Missouri Health Net funds. ... Small businesses, who don't have the fancy accounting and don't have offshore accounts, end up paying - normal taxpayers end up paying into these funds. I'm essentially underwriting Walmart's ability to sell cds at less ...

http://video.msnbc.msn.com/up-with-chris-hayes/50831087/#50831087

http://video.msnbc.msn.com/up-with-chris-hayes/50831088/#50831088

http://tv.msnbc.com/2013/02/15/feb-16-the-minimum-wage-universal-pre-k/