Or perhaps reasonable workers' rights and actual enforcement? Along the lines of mandating more breaks or preventing companies from hiring and scheduling many people at just below full-time so the employees aren't eligible for myriad benefits, both compensatory and quality of life.

That's a leap, for sure. I am not arguing for a higher minimum wage. I didn't mention minimum wage, even obliquely. I am arguing that it is correct to demonize companies for their labor practices.

Increasing minimum wage will do nothing. If you increase the cost of the workers of a good then the cost of the good increases. The idea that we can raise the minimum wage without inflating will never happen, companies are not just going to absorb the costs of increased wages, they will increase their prices to compensate. So the net effect of raising the minimum wage is nothing.

Amazon pays above minimum wage, so the only thing increasing minimum wage will do is reduce the job supply and make people even more desperate to keep the Amazon jobs.

No, no. If you pay unskilled workers more, they will spend more and the overall economy benefits. There will be more jobs and everybody will be happy. This is called Spray Up Economics.

You also price the bottom end out of the market. Sure mega-corps can afford to pay workers more, but half employees work for small businesses which are very sensitive to minimum wages. When wages go up it can be harder for employers to justify hiring teenagers, older, or disabled folk for entry level jobs like being a bus-boy.