It seems obvious to me that it is referring it the minimum wage within the company's wage structure, and not a national minimum wage. I don't understand your point, "the company announced the rollout of a new wage structure, including a minimum wage of $15.25 per hour", means exactly that.
> What Winston Plywood is doing defies almost everything we have been told about wages in Mississippi — that raising the minimum wage would cripple profits, throw company pay structures into chaos, create inflation and ultimately wreck the economy.
The minimum wage of that debate is a government legislated minimum wage, obviously.
They took a story of interest and lied about it to mislead people to put a favorable spin on a political issue. I.e., modern journalism.
If you accept the premise that some work is more valuable than others, then you must also accept that having a minimum wage will rule out certain types of work as being not sufficiently valuable to actually be worth paying for. Thus, having a minimum wage law means that some jobs will disappear (or become much more expensive). Whether this trade-off is worth it or not is a political choice with arguments to be made on both sides.
Unless there happens to be a major group I've never heard of in that state which opposes legal minimum wages and also wants legislation to outlaw companies giving pay rises to their lowest paid workers.
Case studies? Economists?
Or
Vested interests? Politicians? Talk radio hosts?
Journalism should be calling out the specifics here and the ?lack? of grounding it has had, and how such ?misinformation? Is spread.