Here's what other states do:
ALASKA - $7.15
CALIFORNIA - $6.75 (San Francisco - $8.50)
CONNECTICUT - $7.40 (soon to be $7.65)
DELAWARE - $6.15
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA - $7.00
FLORIDA - $6.40
HAWAII - $6.75 (soon to be $7.25)
ILLINOIS - $6.50
MAINE - $6.50
MASSACHUSETTS - $6.75
MINNESOTA - $6.15
NEW JERSEY - $6.15 (soon to be $7.15)
NEW YORK - $6.75 (soon to be $7.15)
OREGON - $7.50
RHODE ISLAND - $6.75
VERMONT - $7.25
WASHINGTON - $7.63
WISCONSIN - $5.70
It is incorrect that you will have to pay more when you "buy stuff" as a result of minimum wage laws. You can compare the cost of living in Florida cities (with minimum wage laws) that are located adjacent to otherwise comparable Georgia cities that don't or you can compare Pennsylvania cities (without minimum wage laws) that are located adjacent to otherwise comparable New Jersey cities that have such legal protections -- there is no difference in the cost of living based on minimum wage laws. Also, you may have noticed that the cost of living has been rising in Texas, but the state and federal minimum wages here haven't, so where's the connection?
If you think that that laws only benefit you if they directly apply to you, you are not considering the benefit to you from shrinking the welfare roles (one effect of minimum wage laws), increasing consumer spending (another effect of minimum wage laws), decreasing reliance on public health care (one more effect of minimum wage laws), and -- most importantly -- the benefit of living in a society that has less poverty generally and less child poverty specifically (children in poverty are most likely to have parents whose incomes would be effected by a rise in the minimum wage).
Also, your skepticism about raising the minimum wage is not shared by most Democrats and -- get ready for this -- most Republicans. The Pew Research Center for the People and the Press did a recent comprehensive study, Beyond Red vs. Blue, of the public's attitudes on issues at the heart of the differences between Republican and Democratic policy solutions. Here's a link: <
http://people-press.org/reports/display.php3?PageID=943>. Here are the study's findings on minimum wage laws: "overwhelming support for an increase in the minimum wage extends across all groups, again with the exception of Enterprisers. Overall 86% of the public favors a hike in the minimum wage from its current level of $5.15 to $6.45 per hour. More than 90% of Pro-Government Conservatives, Conservative Democrats, Disadvantaged Democrats and Liberals support such an increase. Among Enterprisers, however, a plurality (49%) opposes the move, although nearly as many (46%) favor it." Here's a graph:
Raising the minimum wage is the exact sort of initiative that would pull moderate Republicans away from the neo-con-fundamentalist-corporatist Perry wing of the Texas Republican Party. Just as Republicans and their control of the media hold the debate on issues that divide the Democratic Party (Karl Rove's "guns and gays" media plan),
we need to shift the debate to issues which divide the Republican Party and where the public favors Democratic solutions: living wages, access to health care, tax equity, free high-quality public education and affordable access to higher education, regulation in favor of the public interest and against corporate misdeeds including environmental protections, international cooperation instead of unilateralism, etc.Finally, this is one issue that separates Bell from Gammage. If none of this research persuades you, you may prefer a Bell nomination because Bell favors leaving the minimum wage laws to the federal government (but he does favor a higher federal minimum wage). If you are persuaded that Texas should have a statewide minimum wage, Gammage is your candidate.