While the partisan debate rages on, few address why we have the conundrum that we do with with employment wages. Consider this- while only around 20% of businesses are small businesses (and that number has been dwindling) they still create 2 out of every 3 jobs in this country. But as COSTS rise for those businesses, they are unable to hire more people or give more hours when their revenues and overhead no longer result in enough profit to operate and live. And as the studies in the article seem to debate big business vs small business in the marketplace, I find myself a bit curious why so many would want to give the leg up to big business by mandating an unsustainable payroll requirement for smaller ones, along with the enormous tax burden the small business pays compared to the larger ones? The larger businesses have the cash flow to pay more, but then who pays for that? We all do, and COSTS continue to rise. You can't create value out of nothing by killing the job creator.