Union and fast food workers play drums during a Oakland, Calif. demonstration Thursday in support of a proposal to raise the California minimum wage to $15 by 2022. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

By Lydia DePillis

This has been, it’s fair to say, an absolutely bonkers week for minimum wage hikes.

California decided to raise the state's floor to $15 an hour statewide by 2022. The biggest employer in Pennsylvania, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, announced it was raising its minimum wage to $15 by 2021. Last night, New York State leaders cut a deal to get to $15 within three years in New York City and six years in Long Island and Westchester, and $12.50 within five years in the rest of the state. After a Montgomery County Council member announced a new $15 wage proposal Thursday as well, there are now about a dozen live $15 campaigns around the country.

With each new mandate, of course, come warnings of a job apocalypse. "While raising the minimum wage sounds compassionate, it will probably hurt the very workers its advocates want to help," writes the Heritage Foundation’s James Sherk, bemoaning the District of Columbia’s $15 proposal.

In response, advocates for the higher wages have been careful to say that with a couple exceptions, studies show that minimum wage hikes to date have not meaningfully affected employment. Even $15 in a few years is not likely to change that, they point out. And besides, at higher wage levels, lower turnover costs would allow businesses to retain staff, and the increased disposable income for low-wage workers would create more jobs in the community.