Poll numbers in favor of an increase in minimum wage are misleading

Over the last several days, much ado has been made about polls that show overwhelming support for an increase in the minimum wage. For example, Jennifer Kirby in the New Republic writes:

Fast-food workers across the U.S. are striking Thursday to demand higher wages, and it turns out they're not alone in believing the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour is much too low. A majority of Americans—71 percent—support hiking the minimum to $10, according to the 2013 American Values Survey by the Public Religion Research Institute. Democrats overwhelmingly support an increase, and even a majority of Republicans do. The minimum wage “is that rare issue where there is bipartisan and cross-religious support,” says Dan Cox, PRRI's research director. Except for the Tea Party, that is.

Those dastardly tea baggers!

But, the results of these polls are misleading. If instead of asking "Do you support raising the minimum wage? pollsters had asked "Do you support raising prices at McDonald's and Walmart?" (which is what the result of raising the minimum wage would be), presumably the results would be quite different, especially among the poor, who are among the most frequent customers of McDonald's and WalMart.