Ideas on how to increase the living wage

We mentioned in class the extremely outdated ways in which our government determines what is an acceptable minimum wage in America.  It was mentioned that for a short rule of thumb, take the average amount spent on food and triple it, which in today's culture just doesn't work.  No one spends a third of their money on food, more like between a fourth and a sixth.  I wouldn't automatically institute this as a new minimum wage, since that could prove disastrous to businesses.  What I would do instead is to perhaps institute a law that makes it mandatory that any corporation in the United States currently paying only the minimum wage to its employees must provide the option to unionize (outside of Right to Work states, of course).  Secondly, I would institute a departmental entity on the state level that would reconfigure the COLA adjustment in that state on a bi-annual basis, making changes accordingly.  This particular institution would be placed on every state, not just the ones free to unionize.  One other thing I thought about would be to add a section to the job training sector of AmeriCares that would, given the type of certificate the person holds, give the person information on companies that allow unionization, and maybe even take care of enrolling the person, relieving them of having to be educated on the subject.  Companies nowadays, as we discussed, sometimes manipulate their employees by not letting them know they are entitled to certain benefits.  A section of AmeriCares, which I would call the WBA, or Workers' Benefits Administration, would fight those companies in Right to Work states that prevent employees from being defended.  It could be a sector embedded in the judicial system, having an entire law-making and practicing infrastructure behind it to ensure its authority.