So, how's Seattle's raising the minimum wage to $15 working for those it was supposed to help? - Granite Grok

So, how’s Seattle’s raising the minimum wage to $15 working for those it was supposed to help?

Once again, we see the hubris of planners and those that have never signed the front of a paycheck in companies that have low profit margins in low skilled worker industries (re: restaurants)(emphasis mine):

In June of last year, the Seattle city council passed a $15 minimum wage law to be phased in over time, with the first increase to $11 an hour taking effect on April 1, 2015. What effect will the eventual 58% increase in labor costs have on small businesses, including area restaurants? It’s too soon to tell for sure, but there is already some evidence that the recent minimum wage hike to $11 an hour, along with the pending increase of an additional $4 an hour by 2017 for some businesses, has started having a negative effect on restaurant jobs in the Seattle area.

The chart below shows that the Emerald City MSA started experiencing a decline in restaurant employment around the first of the year (when the state minimum wage increased to $9.47 per hour, the highest state minimum wage in the country), and the 1,300 job loss between January and June is the largest decline over that period since 2009 during the Great Recession (data here). The loss of 1,000 restaurant jobs in May following the minimum wage increase in April was the largest one month job decline since a 1,300 drop in January 2009, again during the Great Recession.

The chart mentioned is back at the post – it is quite striking to see how fast (even for just couple of months into this process) the upward curve went downward.  Are some getting more?  Sure, and that’s what Progressives wanted with their meddling in the marketplace.  But what’s not good is those that have lost their jobs – and Progressives won’t talk about that, will they?

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