Fair Wages for all, Not Just the Very Poor

Raising the mimimum wage is all well and good for the poor, as long as it's a living wage, but what about the rest of us? We are still forced to live on meager salaries after master's degrees, to the point where we cannot afford to pay our student loans, health insurance fees or send our own kids to college. Most jobs have resorted to either cutting raises altogether or to giving raises that, after taxes, amount to maybe .20$ an hour. When you add up the so called raise for the week, it's not even enough to fill the standard gas tank. Each year, we end up being forced to get by with less and less as the cost of goods seems to get higher and higher. We need do do something. What sense does it make to have a democracy in which so many goods and services are available, when the majority of the population cannot afford them? We don't want to move back in with Mom and Dad and don't want roommates around small children. We want fair wages!!!!