Originally Posted by Robbie

And in the two places that private land is being used to go for oil and natural gas (western N.D. and Middleton, Texas) they can't find enough people to fill all the high paying jobs.

So yeah...the oil industry is looking for people. And all the other businesses in those areas are desperate for workers too. The pay is so high for the oil work that nobody wants to work at Walmart and McDonalds (or anything else).
So those businesses are forced to raise their pay.

I read that in Middleton the starting pay at Walmart was $17 an hour!

And THAT is how you get people to make more money. Not by raising the minimum wage and trying to force it.