If you raise the price of something, you decrease demand for it.    That is an unassailable economic axiom.   So if you raise the price of labor, you will eliminate a lot of jobs.  

 

However, I have read so many dire predictions of things that will end the world as we know it, and that actually wind up not ending the world as we know it, that am becoming more and more inclined to wait for the results to actually come in before I pronounce judgment.   For example a couple of years ago, people were predicting that Obamacare was going to destroy the economy.   Now, a couple of years into Obamacare, we can see that it did not destroy the economy.  

 

A free market is a remarkably resilient and adaptable thing.   It plows forward no matter what.  So, raising the minimum wage in Seattle to unimaginable levels will have what effect in the end?   I know what basic, unarguable economic theory says.   But what will really happen?   Who knows?    This is why economics is called "the dismal science."  

 

And as far as all the stories in the article about restaurants closing, I used to work in the restaurant supply industry, and I can tell you that restaurants seem to come and go more than any other business.   So just citing stories about restaurants in Seattle who were "forced to close their doors," if the owner says it was because of a pending minimum wage increase, it is probably just an excuse.   The real reason was probably bad management or poor capitalization.  

 

AND ONE MORE THING.   I've noticed some people posting here get their information from websites that have an obvious agenda, and whatever that website prints, they just swallow it hole without any degree of skepticism.  

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