Quote:26% of jobs pay under $10.00/hour.  That's over a quarter of the work force.

 

Is Seattle going too far?  I think they are.  But I don't think that's the reason restaurants are leaving.  I'm sure some are, and I wonder how many of those are doing so to make a political statement, rather than that they can't afford to do it.  Just like many jobs cut hours after the Affordable Care Act was implemented. 


A lot of restaurants fail.  It happens.  In fact a lot of small businesses fail, and it should be no surprise.  Not everybody is able to run a business.  Otherwise everyone would be business owners, and nobody would be employees.  Businesses can and will fail.  And if you're a supporter of the free market, then you should support that.  

 

It's easy to say that minimum wage jobs are supposed to be a stepping stone.  The fact is, sub $10.00 jobs are becoming more and more permanent.  Finding gainful employment isn't as easy as it once was.  You can blame minimum wage all you want, but companies are always looking for ways to cut costs.  And it doesn't benefit people, because companies usually don't pass it along to customers.  If they did, they wouldn't have billions of dollars worth of profits.  

 

"This generation is lazy!" I hear people say.  Their generation was clearly the best.  (nevermind that they had things easier, not to mention some of the other things they did).  "Teens don't want to work fast food!"  Just look at how people treat TMD around here, to see why people don't want to work fast food.  They call him "Fry cook" and use it as an insult as if working fast food is somehow demeaning.  The last generation decided to demean such positions, rather than consider them respectable for actually doing some work (not to mention going to school at the same time)  Also keep in mind that high school drop out rates are at a low.  Meaning more and more kids are finishing school.  They're trying to better themselves, which I'd find hard to call 'lazy'.  But that's just me.

I had no idea that TMD really worked in fast food. The more you know. I agree with a lot of what you say; but many of these restaurant owners are specifically mentioning the $11 (and upcoming $15) minimum wages, as cause for their closures. The minimum wage wouldn't hurt that much if these were big fortune 500 companies who could afford all of the operating costs, but these are just small businesses and mom and pop chains who simply cannot afford it. They have the choice of either laying off people (and causing more unemployment), or just to close up shop altogether.

 

 

It's always the little guy that suffers the most.

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