raise to $15/hr this year is that there will be a huge number of jobs lost that will never come back again. Once the wage gets high enough, companies like McDonalds are forced to automate more and more of their business and once that happens, no high school kid will ever do that work again.

Yes there will be some that benefit, but over time all of that evens out - however the automation will never even itself out. Example - there are now robots that can make and cook a pizza. They can flip burgers and on and on and on. Once we reach the breaking point of the costs of automation versus the cost of hiring at minimum wage, those jobs are gone.