Restaurants Unlimited, operating mostly in the Seattle area just filed for bankruptcy. Officers say the primary reason is the new minimum wage laws. The correlation is not deniable. The salary requirements have been a drain, since employment costs are always the highest expense for eateries.

But still, why? Think about it as the owner of a business – when government makes a $15-dollar-per-hour minimum wage mandatory, here’s what happens:

Everyone who has been working for years at your business, making anything near that new minimum will expect and or demand an increase as well – and why wouldn’t they? If you’ve been busting your ass for five years, working hard, playing by the rules, earning your way up to, say, $15.85 per hour – and some college grad with a Humanities degree slides in off the street and is paid $15 on their first day – are you going to accept that? Hell, no. And your shouldn’t!

The company will be forced to give everyone an increase to reflect their hard-working contributions to the business. Now: What about the people who are making $17-per-hour after 8 years on the job? They suddenly see the 5-year people getting $17-18 per hour and you damn sure know that’s not acceptable. And so on, and so on. Nearly everybody like dominoes is going to be due an increase because of government meddling in the free market. This is not needed in this economy, by the way.

That’s the reality of life under government wage mandates – don’t kid yourself. These bureaucrats have never had to meet a payroll or run a business, other than doling out tax favors to their fat cat donors, so championing the “living wage” minimums is nothing more than buying votes. But the following new case is exactly how it works out in the real world:

RED STATE REPORTS: Minimum wage proponents callously pretend these government controls are endurable for companies. A common refrain heard from those lobbying groups, when told that these wage hike are untenable, has often been, “Well if they cannot afford to pay a living wage they should not be in business!” Think of the vacancy of that mindset; not only do they encourage insolvency and the commensurate loss of jobs, this also defies their primary talking points.

A favorite argument from this troupe is that merely raising food prices slightly will easily provide their desired wages. Instead, as seen by the RU bottom line, their revenues have already been impacted in trying to compensate for the added burden and they have been saddled with even steeper costs. As a result now — when attempting to improve the income for workers — this new policy has over 2,000 employees facing the threat of their entire income.

This follows suit however with what has already been witnessed. Seattle watched a number of businesses close or leave the city after its wage laws were passed. In New York City, a study on restaurant jobs shows that after the minimum wage increase was made law the loss of restaurant positions was the highest experienced since the 9/11 tragedy.

Even the Congressional Budget Office has acknowledged the problem. In a recent report about a proposed national MW-15 bill, the CBO stated that if passed the law would lead to 1,300,000 jobs being lost. But, living wages, and all.

These realities continue to be ignored by the ardent activists, pretending that their policy has nothing but beneficial results. It would be nice to see these benefits, if they ever do come to fruition.

When Seattle officials voted four years ago to incrementally boost the city’s minimum wage up to $15 an hour, they’d hoped to improve the lives of low-income workers. Yet the hike has had the opposite effect.

According to a major new study, some employers have not been able to afford the increased minimums. They’ve cut their payrolls and put off new hiring. They are reducing hours or letting their workers go.

California’s massive state-wide jump to a $15 minimum wage is looking to cost around 400,000 potential jobs. This is according to a new Employment Policy Institute study.

“California Dreamin’ of Higher Wages,” strives to evaluate what the state’s jump to a $15 minimum wage will mean when it fully kicks in in 2022 by attempting to contextualize it with the empirical effects of previous minimum wage increases in the state going back to 1990.

The results are pretty dire. They believe that by the time the minimum wage fully kicks in the state will have lost 400,000 jobs as a consequence. These job losses will not be evenly distributed throughout the state’s workforce. They will hit food service, retail, and agriculture jobs the hardest. Overall, this a four percent loss of jobs out of workforce estimated at around 10 million.

The state of New York embarked on an unprecedented experiment in raising the minimum wage. At the start of 2016, the city’s tipped minimum wage increased by 50 percent. The minimum wage for fast food workers jumped by nearly 17 percent to $10.50. At the start of 2017, the wage floor rose higher to $12 an hour,. The minimum wage for all businesses in the city rose by 22 percent to $11 an hour.

Now NYC is full of empty store fronts.

Exhaustive research over the past few decades suggests raising the minimum wage has little negative impact on overall employment.

Problem is, most past wage hikes have been relatively modest. There’s no data to confidently predict what might happen following the kinds of increases now planned in California and New York.

Because teenagers and young adults hold a disproportionately large share of low-wage jobs, they figure to be among the hardest hit. They will be pushed out by older and better-educated workers who will be drawn by the higher pay offered by retail stores, food services and other businesses.

That could hurt opportunities, especially for black teenagers, one of the most vulnerable groups in America.

Even Harry Holzer, the Labor Department’s top economist in the Clinton administration’s second term, fears there will be heavy job losses. He claims the $15 wage will effect the most the low-skilled, less-educated workers. They may even have to accept cash under the table or cut deals to keep their jobs.

He thought $15 was more of a bargaining ploy to get to $10 an hour, or maybe $12.

So just when are these people going to learn? It really is simple. Low wage jobs are jumping off points to learn. As you grow, get another job that makes more money. Leave the spot for another entry level person. You continue to grow, learn, and earn more.

Who wants to stay in fast food as a career? Silly kids!

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