Unions hope, and small businesses fear, that a higher minimum wage will force all wages higher. So if the least skilled or least experienced employees in a firm receive a 50 per cent increase in the minimum wage, it follows that more skilled or experienced colleagues will demand a significant wage increase as well. The increase in the minimum wage will tend to push other wages higher. Unions understand that while some of their members will lose jobs, more will gain from higher wages. Employers, on the other hand, fear a loss of competitiveness from passing higher costs to their customers and must reconsider their choice whether to hire people or adopt less labour-intensive processes. But, lost in this shuffle are people living in poverty without jobs, able to find only part-time work and/or dealing with the challenges brought on by disability; the very people unions pretend to be working for by demanding a higher minimum wage and the people whose jobs business groups pretend to be protecting.