Higher wages without increased productivity will. Thing is if 50 dollars an hour is what I can make a McDonald's, now that McDonald's job is a lot more desirable than a more stressful job that already makes $50 an hour. And I can easily convince any employer that I'm more skilled for such a job than taking a chance on some poor person who actually really needs the money since I'll be more reliable a worker and cause less bullshit.

It's all around a bad idea when you think of it. I think generally the government only looks at minimum wage increase as it's a bandaid fix that gets them votes but doesn't actually make them do anything substantial. It's basically putting all the economic impracticality onto employers to deal with.

I'd much rather the government puts time and effort into making a functional welfare system and making housing affordable, then you don't need to worry so much about wages as nobody will bother with wages that are too low if they aren't desperate for their next paycheck to the point missing one would make them homeless.

In California's case I think they really need to start getting rid of the red tape for building new inexpensive multi-family housing complexes to increase supply of housing as well as work on building a mass transportation system that isn't a joke. Both would go far to increase the opportunity and living conditions of the poor and create more economic growth that would push wages up.

If course seeing as California has a totally disfunctional government it won't ever happen.