Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin signed a bill last Monday banning cities in the state from establishing a mandatory minimum wage or requiring employers to provide a mandatory minimum number of paid sick or leave days. Any existing or future ordinances regarding these issues would be considered null and void.

With this perfunctory stroke of her pen, Fallin claimed that raising the minimum wage would "drive businesses to other communities and states and would raise prices for consumers." The conservative governor, elected in 2010, went on to assert that most minimum wage-earners are "young, single people working part-time or entry-level jobs."

Unfortunately, that's not exactly accurate, governor. And even if it were, do young, single people not deserve a living wage? Regardless, the following are a few important facts Fallin and her advisers apparently failed to recognize — or perhaps, willfully ignored — during the minimum-wage debate.

1. The average age of minimum-wage workers in this country is 35, a third of them are over 40 and 88% are over 20. Low-wage workers are not a teenage demographic; these are primarily people struggling to support themselves and loved ones. Further, since the average age of Millennials is 24, our generation falls directly in the line of fire.