Both Seattle and San Francisco are on a path to have a $15 minimum wage in 2017. San Francisco’s will hit in May of that year.
I am on the board of Greens restaurant, a 230 seat business with revenues over $5 million and 40 employees who are directly affected by the minimum wage (wait staff). Greens will not show a profit by mid-year next year and will have to consider going out of business the following year. Along with about 8,000 other viable retailers in San Francisco.
So far I’ve only seen two studies of the actual impact of these minimum wage laws. One is of the Seattle-Tacoma airport which has a $15 minimum wage. No visible effect there. The airport is a monopoly and the retailers merely raised the prices of everything. The closest business is miles away. Irrelevant test.
The other study is of Seattle while its rate was still at $12.25 per hour minimum wage. The employment results are shown in a chart that compares retail employment for the State of Washington to Seattle. They were both going up until Seattle introduced the minimum wage. Now the State of Washington employment in retail is still rising and Seattle’s is declining.
How anyone with a brain can assume this isn’t going to result in fewer employees and more unemployment for marginal workers (read black and young) I don’t know. But being a Democrat with a zombie brain and someone who drinks union poured hysteria can explain a lot.
(I wrote a 4 part series on the San Francisco minimum wage a year and a half ago.)