What house will they be able to afford on 85 cents an hour?
Some people can't afford to house themselves on $7.25 an hour especially if they only work 8 hours per month.
The Earned Income Credit can more efficiently address the living situation of people than an hourly wage. Let me give you a few examples.
Person A works for $7.25 an hour and works 40 hours per week. Person A averages $1,256.66 per month in income.
Person B works for $7.25 an hour and works 3 hours per week. Person B averages $94.25 per month in income.
Person C works for $15.00 an hour and works 40 hours per week. Person C averages $2,600.00 per month in income.
Person D works for $15.00 an hour and works 3 hours per week. Person D averages $195.00 per month in income.
Person E doesn't work at all.
An increase in minimum wage might help person A and person B but it doesn't address person D or person E. On a related note it took Person C 12 years of hard work in order to make $15.00 an hour. Wouldn't person C get short changed if the minimum wage was increased to $15.00 an hour?
Let's complicate things even further. Some of those people are married to spouses with comfortable incomes and some of them are not. Can you tell them apart? Nope. You can't.