this statement is a fundamental misunderstanding of economics and business. Google and Facebook can afford to pay their engineers very well because what they produce is scalable and available to the whole world very quickly, and isn't necessarily easily reproducible thus having high profit margins. Someone who sews/ decorates/ dyes clothes can produce X amount of product per hour which can be sold for Y$. As these jobs require little skill, there isn't much of a barrier to compete thus producing LOW profit margins. When you dictate that a company must pay their employees an amount per hour greater than Y$ that company ceases to operate, because other companies which are able to pay employees less than Y$ will continue to undersell you. And are consumers going to buy from that cheaper producer because as much you and others "empathize" with the conditions of workers, you don't want to pay a higher price for the same product. This is why even if the entire US would adopt a $15 minimum wage, these jobs would be relocated to Cambodia where workers are paid $100 a month. http://www.richtrek.com/2015/08/touts-making-journey-from-thai.html you can see photos/ videos of workers leaving their jobs at the following link near the bottom of the page to get an idea of what life is like for them.