Is $15 an hour a realistic minimum wage?

Organizers are calling it the biggest mobilization of U.S. workers ever.

Low-wage workers-- backed by unions and other supporters-- are holding demonstrations in some 230 U.S. cities calling for a $15 an hour minimum wage. The current federal standard is $7.25, although it’s higher in several states and cities such as Seattle, which just instituted an $11 an hour base that eventually will rise to $15.

But can companies afford to pay their lowest-tier workers that much?

Yahoo Finance’s Aaron Task says yes…but not without repercussions.

“Most corporations could handle $15 an hour, but then you’re probably going to hire less workers and you’re going to pass on those costs to the consumer,” he argues. “So it’s going to hurt other people who may not work for you at Walmart (WMT) or McDonald’s (MCD) but who use your services.”

That point was brought up last year when the Congressional Budget Office reported that a gradual increase of the federal minimum wage to $10.10 an hour would cause a loss of half a million jobs as companies cut payrolls to meet higher labor costs.

And Yahoo Finance Senior Columnist Michael Santoli points out an even-more-drastic doubling of the minimum wage immediately just wouldn’t work.

“You can’t go from seven-and-change to $15 and have the economy swallow that,” he says.

However, Yahoo Finance Editor in Chief Andy Serwer argues some kind of minimum wage increase is not only needed, it’s justified.

“In today’s dollars, the peak was in 1965 at $10,” he notes. “So it’s gone down from $10 to $7.25. To me that’s unconscionable. I don’t know if we’ll get to $15, but we should go above $7.25.”

Task finds that reasonable.

“There’s a balancing act here,” he explains. “And somewhere closer to $10 or $12 is the --quote, unquote-- right number and where we’re probably going to end up."

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Serwer thinks inaction is not an option.

“The costs will be higher if we don’t do it,” he explains. “Social unrest and that report the other day that showed $153 billion the government pays to working families-- there are costs on the other side, too. We’re paying for that right now.”

Santoli believes today’s protests have come about because American companies have been squeezing employees for a long time.

“You’re seeing this pent-up frustration with an economy that since the ‘90’s -- at minimum-- has been incredibly good at compressing labor costs,” he says.

And he wonders if eventually it will be the consumers who force the companies into raising pay.

“To me one of the interesting things is whether this sticks to the fast-food chains,” he adds. “If there’s such a taint among customers who care about this sort of thing to say, you know what, we don’t think they operate ethically for this reason.”