re: Conservative dogma. Workers Compensation is another unaffordable item
Talk to any California business about how worker's compensation worked a few years back.
Your answer on a definition of "living wage" is typically void of any useful information. The real answer is, of course, that the concept is completely undefinable, and probably has a different answer for every single person on the planet. One that would change from year to year for each of them.
But then, the lack of definability is precisely what makes it politically useful. You can attack somebody for not supporting a "living wage," and if he's stupid enough, he'll try to defend himself rather than point out that it's a null concept.