Seattle’s $15 Minimum Wage Hike Forcing Restaurants To Close

SEATTLE, WA – Remember when last June the mayor of Seattle pushed through legislation that would, beginning on April Fool’s Day of this year (no kidding), force businesses to begin phasing in a $15 minimum wage for workers? Well, as if the initial backlash wasn’t enough (certain small business owners that would have otherwise been exempt from the immediate adoption of the policy were also forced to comply due to technicalities), there are now new reports coming from the Emerald City that heavily suggest the impending change in wages is causing several restaurants to close.

RELATED: $15 Minimum Wage Means The Rise of the Machines

In an article titled “What Is Killing the Restaurants of Seattle?” The Weekly Standard reports on a phenomenon sweeping the city over the past couple of weeks in which various restaurants have been inexplicably shutting their doors (a claim that a separate report from The Inquisitr during the same timeframe confirms).

The Standard‘s article aptly points out that while it might be propitious for store owners in a place as politically liberal as Seattle to deny their reason for closing is the upcoming hike in wages (this coming right on the heels of countering op-ed pieces claiming exactly that), the data itself (i.e. basic understanding of economics) reveals the truth – higher mandated wages equal less job sustainability for low-wage workers.

According to the original local report that brought national attention to this situation, 17 percent of Seattle’s restaurants – that’s 400 physical locations – close annually. That’s already without the mandated $15 minimum wage now being forced upon these businesses. The fear that follows then becomes quite valid: Seattle’s market is already treacherous enough, so why risk an even higher likelihood of collapsing into debt once one is forced to pay the employees significantly more money than what is considered sustainable (worker wages account for 35% of operating costs in your typical restaurant)?

It’s not just Econ 101 students who could have figured this out, however, as the Washington Policy Center was told by a spokesman for the Washington Restaurant Association, “Every [restaurant] operator I’m talking to is in panic mode, trying to figure out what the new world will look like.”

This insider perspective directly contradicts the outward facade maintained so far by the restaurant heads and reported by the leftist media, yet stands to remain the most sensible and logical in retrospect once the minimum wage policy goes into full effect next month, and even more businesses begin to feel the financial strain. Only time will tell, of course, but we feel confident that data necessitates the reality.

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