These days the minimum wage is so laughably low (in real dollars it's a small fraction of its historical high) that of course it doesn't have an effect on employment. I have no idea how anyone, let alone a single mother or father, could work for minimum wage. Even, say, $10/hr would be a brutal wage to try to raise a kid on. I think in order to really study whether minimum wage affects employment and economic growth, one would have to have a minimum wage that is in the ballpark of a minimum living wage. In that case, we could see what the effects are and have a debate about it. I worked one minimum wage job back in (I believe) 1997, and my only raise was from $4.75 to $5.15 (the minimum wage was increased that summer). The job was at a golf course parking carts, and I was 15 years old. When your biggest concern is buying a dime of skanky weed, you can handle that low of an hourly rate, but I don't know what other segment of society could.