Humanists say yes, economists say no. Mostly.
Here is a readable bit on why this might be a bad idea. In any case it'll be nice to have some experimental evidence to look at.
It is useful to note that minimum wage isn't immediately increasing to $10/hr. It will increase to $9/hr on June 1st, 2014 and will increase to $10/hr on January 1st, 2016.
Very true, but only helps the situation if it's used to potentially mitigate the (*possible*) negative effects this may have on California's employment. Despite being an armchair economist I have no opinion on this issue; I genuinely want to see what happens.
And as someone who earns minimum wage in California, I welcome the raise, but really hope that everything doesn't become more expensive as a result.
I would guess that while there would be a slight price bump, the GDP growth and increase in purchasing power from a minwage hike would outpace that, leading to a net benefit. The only way that a minwage hike would cause a 1:1 price increase would be if labor were 100% of a business's costs, 100% of the jobs involved were minimum wage jobs, and 100% of the workforce worked at minimum wage. For reference, compare Australia's PPP to the United States. Their minimum wage is more than twice ours, but the cost of goods in Australia is only about 30% more expensive than in the United States.