Workers take their compensation in a variety of ways. On the high end, Google famously offers perks like food and nap pods.

But even on the low end, people are interested in things other than immediate cash on hand. For example, learning and mentoring to grow their skillset and move up in life.

Some of these opportunities come for free, and even immediately bring benefits. Other costs the business money.

Without a minimum wage, employees and employers are free to choose different trade-offs. And especially young people early in their career might be willing to put quite a premium on mentoring.

With a minimum wage, a big part of the space of possible trade-offs is unavailable.

Now---this isn't just idle talk: there's a bunch of studies about how one effect of (increasing) minimum wage is decreased social mobility and people getting stuck at the bottom. (Sorry, not enough time to look them up now. But can do, if there's demand.)