The empirical basis for your argument is weak. Why cite the anecdotal case of Restaurants Unlimited when there are several peer-reviewed studies about Seattle’s minimum wage hikes?
Restaurants Unlimited is scapegoating Fight for $15 for its own failures as a business:
As the author points out, the six restaurant closures cited in the bankruptcy proceedings all happened outside of Seattle. While in the same period, 111 new restaurants were opened inside Seattle, which now has a $16 hourly wage.
There have been tons of studies on minimum wage in Seattle. Why don’t you cite one? The results are generally mixed. They either show zero change in employment or only a modest drop. Nothing like the catastrophe you’re presenting. One recent study showed no significant price increases
In fact, since 2015, Seattle area unemployment has fallen to a ten-year low while in the rest of the state it has held more or less steady.
In terms of automation, these companies have been planning to replace workers with computer kiosks for years now. It’s inevitable. Those jobs are going away eventually, so why not ensure that the people still working there have a decent income that they can use to support their families or fund their continuing education?
Lastly, I actually don’t think minimum wage is an optimum solution—unions are. You say these people are getting paid what the job is worth. They are not. They’re getting paid what each individual, with zero leverage, can bargain for, which will always be lower than the actual market value of the job.
Get rid of Taft-Hartley. Legalize closed shops. Require every workplace to post instructions on how to form a union. Punish employers for anti-union activities. When we get the unionization rate up to 75–80 percent, I say it’ll be fine to do away with the minimum wage altogether.
