What would happen if the minimum wage and government assistance was indexed for inflation?

I mean, that depends on your opinions of their effects. For a free market person, the minimum wage makes low and zero skill workers more expensive, making them hired in smaller numbers, which slows their accumulation of experience and ability to move up to the next rung of employment. So indexing for inflation would make that negative effect stronger.

On the other hand, if you believe that the minimum wage has no effect on employment, and especially if you believe it has a Keynesian demand-stimulus effect, then indexing for inflation would make those positive effects stronger.

Likewise with govt assistance. if you think that govt assistance ‘crowds out’ the need for a person to get a job, then indexing for inflation will make it moreso. Last time I saw numbers on this most states, if you just take a handful of programs most used, people are getting more from assistance than an entry level job. And in about a dozen states, a person on just these most well known programs will earn more after taxes than the median job pays. Indexing for inflation just makes it more the case that such folks might rationally choose not to work, thereby trapping them in dependance.

But if you believe that these assitance programs are saving people and stimulating demand, then again, indexing for inflation only enhances that positive effect.

One thing I think we should DEFINITELY index to inflation is tax brackets. In fact, not just to inflation, but rather to income percentile. So if the bracket starts at X and X is the 80th percentile, then as the economy grows and changes, that bracket should REMAIN the 80th percentile.