instituting the US minimum wage in Puerto Rico will decimate their economy worse than it already is.....
Decimate? The only employees in Puerto Rico with a minimum wage lower than the federal $7.25/hour are those not covered by FLSA.
Non-FLSA employees in Kansas are likewise exempt from the state minimum wage.
In 2010, Kansas raised its state minimum wage from the previous $2.65/hour, to $7.25/hour. This was right around the same time the federal minimum wage increased from the previous $5.15/hour to that same $7.25/hour. In other words, non-FLSA employees in Kansas were bumped up from $5.15/hour to $7.25/hour.
Puerto Rico's current minimum wage
already matches the current federal minimum wage of $7.25/hour, so FLSA employees would stay the same. Non-FLSA employees in Puerto Rico currently have a minimum wage of $5.08/hour, which is roughly the same as what their counterparts in Kansas had been making prior to the bump.
Considering that the Kansas economy was not 'decimated' when the minimum wage increase happened here a decade ago, I have my doubts that the economy of Puerto Rico would be 'decimated' if an almost identical increase were to happen there.
Or am I missing something specific about Puerto Rico that would make it get hit especially hard?