Will the minimum-wage issue drive Democrats to the polls next November? Some Democrats certainly hope so, as indicated by this Wall Street Journal story on President Obama’s travel to Michigan to emphasize the issue in an event with Senate candidate Rep. Gary Peters. Democratic strategists note, accurately, that large majorities favor raising the minimum wage, from whatever it is to whatever it is proposed to be. And large majorities of Democrats and majorities almost as large of Independents say they would be more likely to vote for a candidate who supports raising the minimum wage.

But how many people are really moved by the issue? The vast majority of people earning the minimum wage at any given time are not heads of households, but rather second or third or fourth earners — often teenagers working part-time. For them, an increase in the minimum wage would be welcome (unless it caused their employer to end their job) but not of life-altering significance. And of course, many minimum wage earners are only marginal voters, because they are young and transient, because they have few community ties or obligations — there are any number of reasons. And one suspects it’s an issue of limited salience for those in households where no one earns anything like the minimum wage.