This week, a Portland task force will hear final discussions on Mayor Michael Brennan’s proposal to increase the city’s minimum wage. While the hearts of advocates may be in the right place, heads most certainly are not. A minimum wage hike to $9.50 per hour in 2015 and possibly even to $10.75 by 2017 would create economic hardship on locally owned businesses that will hurt job opportunities for the very people that the wage hike is intended to help. These businesses are low-margin and low-profit, generally making only a few cents for each sales dollar. They also devote a third…