So why didn't this prediction of doom and gloom come to pass when WA raised its minimum wage in the late 1990s? Why hasn't it come to pass when San Jose raised its minimum wage to $10 a year or two ago? In fact the evidence shows local businesses do just fine.

Nope not buying it. Raise your prices if you have to. All those places on your block will have to do the same. You probably haven't accounted for an increase in business, which means your 5% will be worth more. Your argument is that if wages increase but everything else stays the same then you're screwed. But what about when people at the bottom are spending more money? Maybe they'll go to your bar more often. Maybe higher paid people will show up more often because they've been getting an extra boost by minimum wagers. First rule of business is to adapt.

I'm an accountant at a restaurant on Capitol Hill.

If we raised EVERYONE to $15/hour, including tipped employees, our total payroll costs would rise 4.33%.

So yeah, ask your local businesses. Not only are most of us better at math than this stupid motherfucker, but we serve much better food and drink than Liberty ever will.

Okay, I get it. Your costs at the bar go up 20% if wages are raised. Fine.

If a pint of beer costs $5, then $5 x 1.2 = ...drumroll please...$6. $1 dollar increase on my beer for your employees to have a livable wage. So you can keep your precious 5%, and keep opening more restaurants.

Back-of-the-napkin calculations are not data. This is data: http://www.ucpress.edu/book.php?isbn=978…

Low wage earners have more disposable income... If their employer can stay in business.

There is an irrefutable logic to Andrew's analysis. One that is ignored or belittled by the opposition. Small business owners aren't the bad guys, taking advantage of their employees. Somehow we have twisted our personal struggles to blame anyone within reach.

There will be resistance to any increase, of course. The entrepreneurs are no less interested in bettering their lives than anyone else, and more costs reduce their incomes. But let's be careful. The negative long term repercussions are real.
Keep the increases to a modest level, but do keep them coming.

There are really no short cut solutions to the plight of the working man. Let's not make it worse.

@4 jnmend - you should write this up in a little more detail to offer another taste of reality.

If a small business can't figure out somehow how to pay its workers at least barely enough to pay rent, then it shouldn't be in business. There's no constitutional right for anyone who wants to to run a small business.

Don't you fools realize that people don't live in Seattle because of the culture or convenience, they're so close to downtown because of the low, low food and drink prices?

If all the greatest places in Seattle have to raise their prices 20%, everyone will just relocate from Seattle's best, most vibrant neighborhoods for all the 5-star restaurants, hot night spots and cultural venues of Tukwila, Kent and Muklteo. Urban flight! Disaster!

Isn't it funny how every time the minimum wage is raised, all the business owners make the same doom and gloom arguments, but they never come to pass?

I also find it very funny that people like Friedman here think it is a convincing argument to say that their personal wealth or a handful of restaurants are more important than thousands of people living in poverty and making poverty wages.

And by the way, the ad hominem attack against the very people you are trying to convince is a terrible tactic, and makes this argument a failure before it even starts.

But by all means, keep pouring on the paternalistic condenscension. That will make people vote your way!

Shorter Andrew Friedman: Professional chefs making great pasta dishes should only be paid $9.32 an hour.

I'm all for raising the minimum wage -- but raising the minimum wage alone won't do it. Raising taxes is critical, too, on top wage earners. And yes, that includes my household.

The math you provided shows that you pay all of your employees only the bare minimum wage. If other words, you're exactly the type of business owner that we hope gets run out of town.

If that's not true, please correct your article.

EVEN IF this argument was true, which it isn't, someone else's ability to be able to pay their rent and feed their kids is more important than my petty little convenience of being able to order a latte for under five bucks.

Really, if you can't offer something that is valuable enough that you can pay people enough to live on, you shouldn't be in business.

I'm confused. How is it at that raising minimum wage to $12.50 an hour (a $3.20 increase) increases labor costs by just 4 percent of total income, while raising it to $15 (which is $5.30 higher) increases it by 18%?

I looked at the numbers and a 63% wage increase only raises total costs by 18% (19% actually) if you're paying EVERYONE minimum wage. Maybe you are, I don't know, but that means an increase to $12.50 an hour would increase costs by at least 10 percent. If you've already got some employees making more than minimum wage, 18 percent would be the upper end of the payroll increase you're looking at.

I'm not sure why you're making this mistake unless it's in an effort to increase support for a compromise since you know wages are going up one way or another.

Also, a 20-percent increase in costs at the local bar doesn't sound so bad when thousands of people are getting a 60% raise and are no longer needing to be supported by public tax dollars for food support, health care, etc. Paying a dollar more fore a beer sounds like a fair deal in return for fewer of my neighbors living in poverty.

Last, next time you want to convince people of your viewpoint try not to treat them like ignorant children. I guarantee you've lost some business because of your tone, much more than your message, so when wages go up don't blame the city when you go out of business. Blame this attitude.

First, let me state that I am pro $15/hr. Having said that, let's do some simple math. If you pay your employees $11/hr and you have 120 hours that you assign to various employees, your total costs for wages are $1320 (I'm leaving out taxes, L&I, etc., just to make the math simpler.) If you raise the minimum wage to $15/hr, the wage cost goes to $1800. (I'm using real life hours and wages from a small business where I work.) My calculations show that's a ~36% increase in wage cost. WHOA. But wait... the difference is $480. I can't tell you here what that is %-wise in regard to profit, but I can tell you it's less than 5%.

I will be happy to pay a few extra dollars here and there if it means that other people in our city get to earn something *approaching* a livable wage.
Their rights in this realm trump my right to a slightly (or even significantly) cheaper mug o' beer.

Yeah, and he was even wrong that a pack of commenters would accuse him of lying! Oh, wait...

Andrew has kept a solid business going, in a competitive market, in an expensive area, for a decade-plus now. He deserves some credit for knowing his numbers. Certainly more credit than ideology-driven activists for whom economics is all theory.

The only thing you mention with a set price is a book store. Everything else is a variable price. For instance, a pint of beer that may be $5 over at one bar is $6 at another and $4 at another. A cup of coffee may be $2 here or $2.50 there or $3 at some other place.

The people who might be squeezed will be the white collar people who are currently making a 6-figure salary. And, if they feel like they're being squeezed, they can look for another higher-paying job. Isn't that the logic that you use on minimum wage workers? If you're not making enough, get another job?

Should we ask Mr. Friedman if he owns a house on Capitol Hill? Has he owned it for at least 10 years? Around that time, is just before the housing market boom. Maybe he can tell us how much he makes as an owner of bars. I know that all of these people against minimum wage are reluctant to tell us how much they are making. Our salaries are out in the open, but their salaries are behind closed doors.

Just raise the prices.

Business owners always claim that every cost increase will be the goddamn Armageddon, and yet this town is full of shitty businesses with mediocre service, year after year as the cost of everything goes up. When the banks stop giving small business loans to every twat whose always wanted to open their own small business, we'll know there's really a problem.

Percents are hard. You throw a lot of percents around, and 30% + 18% seems like a whole lot more than the 5% profit that you make. Let's use real numbers.

Your business makes $100 a year.
$5 of that is profit.
$95 of that is costs.
30% of your costs are wages. .3 * $95 = $28.50 are wages.
70% of your costs ($66.50) are something else.
If minimum wage rises to $15, the amount you contribute to wages will rise by %18. $28.50 * 0.18 = $4.64.

So now your total costs are $66.50 + $28.50 + $4.65 = $99.65.
You still want to make $5 profit. That means that you need to take in $104.65 instead of $100.

You need to raise prices by a little less than 5%, not 20%. This is totally doable.

The age old fallacy that has been debunked over and over that the the author is pushing here is called the "Iron Law of Wages". It is Malthusian, Lassallian, bourgeois, reactionary propaganda.

***PLEASE READ***

http://marxists.org/archive/marx/works/d…

If your labor costs are up by 20%, raise prices by 20%. Your customers will be able to afford that when they're bringing home more money.

This of course comes from the owner of a bar with the most sexually segregated staff of any bar on 15th Ave. How often does one see women behind the bar, mixing drinks? How often does one see men doing table service? Almost without fail the cocktail servers are cute young women while behind the bartenders (who don't have to bend over to the low tables for all the paying customers to look down their shirts) are men, almost every single time I've been in there.

I've already stopped going to Liberty because of their sexist employment practices, but it's nice to know that Friedman just gave me another reason.

So:

* Zero examples of business declining after a past minimum wage increase. The best argument is apparently writing "WILL happen" in all caps. Can you imagine applying for a small business loan, and when they ask if your business model has ever worked before, anywhere, you just bleat, "this WILL make a profit. It WILL!" All caps is not an argument. Show us evidence of businesses closing after wage increase.

* Zero evidence that low wages are better for independent businesses. Why are there so many great indie shops in Seattle and San Francisco and Portland and New York City? Why are there so few great indie shops in Salt Lake and Houston? If indie shops are sensitive to wages, show evidence of that. Because from here it looks like your yuppie playgrounds and hipster meccas and artisan pickle boutiques never even notice high wages.

If anything, you could argue that high wages, and high disposable income, are the very ingredients for a hothouse to cultivate entrepreneurs with new ideas.

The way I see it, businesses have had their costs subsidized by poverty more and more as the cost of living has risen and wages have remained stagnant. If running your business requires keeping many of your workers in poverty (or close to it), then you need a new business model.

-Sincerely, Erica Garvey: business person, graduate of The Wharton School, capitalist

The names of his establishments are Liberty and Good Citizen? hahahaha! Wow, you can't make this stuff up. Way to be standard bearer for lower wages.

At least he didn't attack Anna personally this time. Progress!

So Friedman is that rare restaurant owner that doesn't keep two sets of books?
That 5% he's talking about is the number reported to the IRS & state. If that's truly all he's making, he's in the wrong business.

Kudos to previous commenters who rightly point out that prices can rise to match the extra wage burden. I'm not expecting owners to fund the increase out of their profits.

Prices are already more expensive in Seattle than surrounding areas due to local costs; just add this to the threatened price increases for sick leave, Obamacare, other taxes, etc etc.

@28,

I can't help thinking of the way tipping standards have changed over the years, largely due to wages stagnating. I remember when a 15 percent tip was considered the norm, and I'm really not that old; people who are considerably older than I am remember when 10 percent was standard. Now you're an asshole if you don't tip 20 percent. Service certainly hasn't gotten better over the years, the tipping standards have changed entirely because the feds can't be arsed to increase minimum wage with inflation.

Just for the sake of statistical fairness:
1988/89 wage increase which bumped MW in WA up with 50% was a result of adjustment- WA MW was BELOW the federal minimum. Considering that fed minimum always trail regional and local wages, it is reasonable to believe that there was enough wealth accumulated locally to cruise to the federal level with little to no repercussions. In contrast, the current minimum wage far surpasses the federal one- it's the highest state wage in the country. Increase by 63% will make it the highest MW in the state, the country, and the world. With cost of living in Seattle being way less than the one in hundreds of cities and communities around the globe. Food for thought.

Uh, yeah so a $3 beer is now $4. A $6 well drink is now $8. The wage increase isn't going to be a secret.

This was a shitty article and the author is a scumbag.

@2 just because people cried wolf in 1999 does not mean that a $1 increase in minimum wage between 1999 and 2001 is parallel to a $6 increase between 2014 and 2015.

@15 Bartenders may make $9.32/hr for payroll purposes but, obviously make sooo much more. You want to run a business out of town when an employee pulls down $40,000 plus every year?

Jmend your an accountant for a Restaurant on Capital Hill. The fact that your payroll goes up by 4.8% is based on the amount of employee's you you at your restaurant. Don't apply that to every business in the industry. Did you conceive of a scenario before you posted that other business's have differing amounts of employee's. Say I have 100 employee's making $13 per hour( and you have 10 making $ 14.50 per hour...Different wouldnt you say.

Article was terrible.

But "artisan pickle boutiques" made my goddamn day.

@38: I expect that it will, if you're making more than minimum wage. On the plus side, you're making more than minimum wage, so, by definition, you're better off than someone who is currently making minimum wage.

@15
Her type of business is the one you want to run out of town. = Higher unemployment ..her employee's btw lose their job in that scenario. I am pretty sure if her employee' could make more right now(for example)they would find work elsewhere.

I'm cool with paying a few extra dollars so your employees can have more financial stability... The idea that everyone that doesn't agree with you is simply oblivious to facts is missing the point.

If you can't afford to pay your employees a living wage then you have no business being in business. Bye Liberty! I also wonder how much business this article is going to cost you now that your patrons know how you value your employees.

I love how he starts out the article by claiming that the rest of us have a limited, unreasonable view, and then, low and behold, he's the one with the limited, unreasonable view.

Seriously, dude, there's tons of data out there that refute your claims utterly and completely. You don't have to be driven by emotion to see what a self-centered, egotistical asshole you are being.

By all means - raise your prices. Establishments raise their prices or change their portions all the time for other reasons - so what is the big deal?

Have you not considered that all of the minimum wage workers who have NEVER BEEN ABLE TO AFFORD to frequent establishments such as yours… now might actually have the means to BECOME NEW CUSTOMERS, not just of your bar, but to ALL the businesses pointed out in the article?

Raising the minimum wage does not create overpriced restaurants.

IT CREATES CONSUMERS AND CUSTOMERS!

@37: Freidman states that he's paying all of his workers minimum wage, including cooks and other non-tipped employees. So, yes, I do think that when Freidman pitches so much of a fit as he has about a minimum wage increase, we ought to consider if he's really the kind of business owner that we want to pander to.

SO, uhh, if we go to a $15/hr wage, can we ban tipping?

@42: Sorry, I assumed that Andrew Freidman identified as male.

I'm sure you've noticed the glut of new businesses around town, especially on Capitol Hill. A new business that pays its workers something more comparable to their worth will pop up in Liberty's place if Andrew can't figure out how to make it without paying his workers shit.

@9++. The minimum wage is well below a living wage, and has not kept up with inflation for the last 30 years. If the *only* reason you're still in business is because you pay your staff poverty wages, I don't have a ton of sympathy for you. I especially don't have a lot of sympathy for someone who currently pays ALL his workers minimum wage, as Friedman appears to.

But as many people on this thread have pointed out (@23 especially), your math is wrong - you'd have to raise prices by 10% at the very most to make this work. Will people pay $4.50 for a beer that now costs $4? (Yes: especially because such a price increase will hit EVERY business like yours in the city at once.) Moreover, might you have more business as people now have more money to spend? (Yes.)

Pathetic. And patronizing. Which, because of the law of the conservation of patrons, means that I have to seriously reconsider patronizing Liberty again.

Hardly. The whole thing locally is a zero sum game- or it should be, right? It is a way to divert disposable income from the lower middle class to the working poor, and that's really bullshit. Upper middle class and the rich don't care, they have plenty to spend.
If the unions are that gutsy, they should take on the main culprit- corporate loopholes and welfare, on a federal level, and dramatic tax hike on the 1%.
They can't, they are weak, so they pick on the little guy, who is actually part of the class they are trying to defend. In this case, that's Andrew.
He's not your enemy, he doubtfully makes more than you do. Go after the real assholes.

As a bartender myself, I never thought I would say this, but it makes sense to raise minimum wage to 15$ dollars/hr for everyone not working tipped jobs. The idea would be people who now make a LOT more money can afford to frequent the bar, go out to dinner and buy those extra coffees, which would help those being tipped and the businesses they work for.

You know how many percent profit margin my family gets to keep in our pocket after paying living expenses?? ZERO PERCENT. Thanks for nothing, fool. Know how many favorite restaurants I get to afford to eat at each year ? NONE!!!! Maybe if you weren't eating at fucking restaurants all the time and took even a damned minute to think about what your impoverished neighbors HAVE to eat, you wouldn't be crying in the stranger about WahWahWah paying a living wage. I would never afford your shitty restaurant even if I did get to keep FIVE percent of MY money. Fuck you!

Friedman writes, "Payroll is approximately 30 percent of my entire costs at Liberty" and then states, "If the minimum wage goes up to $12.50 an hour . . . that would be an increase of 34 percent." So that seems to be a pair of straightforward statements (and also one that leaves his costs essentially unaffected, since he says that payroll typically runs 30-35% of costs, although he also says he would have to raise prices 10%).

Here's the part that seems like it's obscuring something: "If the minimum wage goes to $15 an hour, I'd have to raise my contribution to payroll by 18 percent."

Friedman doesn't come right out and say that his payroll at Liberty would be 48% of total costs. So is that what he is saying, or is he manipulating his presentation of details? (Also, I just realized this is the only time he uses the words "my contribution." But doesn't he have a business partner? So does that extra 18% refer to the actual total cost of payroll?)

This guy put one foot in his mouth and shot the other. Never been to his places - now I never will. Good work for yourself, dude.

After reading this article, I'm inclined to avoid Liberty. It tends to be understaffed anyway. With a boss like this I can see how that happens. I get that raising costs on small businesses means they will have to raise their prices, and if your business model can't handle that, your business model is fundamentally exploitative.

Wow, some rich condescending piece of shit who pays his entire staff poverty wages has an inaccurate and unoriginal argument against $15 an hour. In other news, the sun rose in the west this morning...

I'm looking more at tipped vs. non-tipped in this scenario. Andrew's employees are tipped, and most assuredly, their clientele tip well (mostly). Most of us are, have been, or have friends or are dating people in that industry, so we've learned our manners and tipping etiquette by now (hopefully). Being a twenty-something or thirty-something with a little extra money means not tipping like an asshole. So that said, I'm worried very little about Liberties employees incomes right now.

One thing that may have to happen in this increase to offset customer prices is Andrew will have to take some cut of the tipjar for overhead, which sucks ass, but here is the reality. People who make a minimum wage of $9.09 or whatever now, will not be frequenting bars like Liberty anymore than they would at $15 an hour minimum wage. The price increases across the board (not to mention the looming 15% distillery tax thats coming down the pipe), is going to make your average cocktail go-er just simply not be able to afford it anymore, or certainly no-where near as often. Your middle class person making 20-25 dollars an hour just won't be getting libations nearly as often. This is a fact. So where is all this magical new clientele you are talking about? Trust me, Andrew, and establishments like his stand to lose the most business from these price increases. Sure they cater to some tech folks who have loads of money. But the reality is even that crowd will be going out less. Don't know about you guys but my rent went up 25% in the last two years alone.

At a lot of our favourite bars and restaurants we are going to be seeing some crazy amounts of price increases, which is going to suck for all these bars opening day in and day out. All of us who are able to go out two or three nights a week are going to have to cutback, that is the reality. So businesses are going to have to rely on the weekend crowd to come in and keep them afloat.

At the end of the day, this isn't helping small business, is way too much of a jump all at once, and is going to not only hurt the businesses in the area, but the consumers that have settled into these places as their neighborhood bar. Minimum wage needs a little boost, sure, and the tax-rate on those effected living in these areas could also be reduced or credited, but putting all the onus on small business owners, and then shunning them when they speak out? Come on guys, you know just as well as I do that when you go out, have a couple drinks and a small plate from your favourite restaurant and the bill comes and slaps down a number in the three figures, you simply won't go as much.

Reduced business for bars and restaurants that have a slightly better product with fresh organic ingredients, or bars that don't just pull down a tap or fire some squirt guns filled with syrups in their drinks and call it a cocktail will get hurt a lot, and I for one would like to continue to support places and business who put a little more care into their product and don't charge an arm and a leg for it.

Also, to the commenter who said Liberty has no women behind the bar, this is not true. Elizabeth is one of the best female bartenders in town, so maybe you should read their Staff section on their menu before you try and call their business out for being sexist? That's not even relevant to the discussion, anyway.

I already kind of disliked Liberty Bar because I think their drinks are awful but now I hate the owners politics! Thanks for making it easier for me to tell me friends that i'd rather not spend my money there!

Distillery tax = Distributor tax* to bars and restaurants (ending their discount: read here:

http://koin.com/2014/02/24/washington-li…

@60: One thing that may have to happen in this increase to offset customer prices is Andrew will have to take some cut of the tipjar for overhead

What? So he's going to steal money from his employees? That'll help his business, sure it will.

Small businesses with limited profit margins will have to raise prices to accommodate a significant increase in labor costs. Yeah, we can quibble about how much, but doesn't everyone pretty much agree this is broadly true? The question is whether customers will stomach such increases, go elsewhere, or decrease their spending.

The restaurant industry is by far best positioned to get customers to accept increased prices, because there's not really an alternative if you want to eat out. Maybe folks will eat out a little less (especially price sensitive households like families), but few Seattleites are going to drive to Bellevue, Shoreline or Burien for something that is foremost about convenience. The foodie places will become more high-end, the lower end places will go to counter service & the mid-range, sit-down niche will probably have to shift one direction or another to survive, but there are some competitive strategies out there.

Of more concern are the small retailers who really have no option. They can't raise prices because they're in competition with on-line retailers whose labor is out of state, and larger businesses who combine on-line & "brick & mortar" channels. Already, people who shop locally are usually choosing to pay slightly more for the superior service and convenience such businesses must provide to distinguish themselves. Expecting small retailers to convince Seattleites to pay even more for stuff they can get on-line cheaper is not realistic. This would be the final blow for alot of local retailers that have barely survived the last 10 years.

I have read over and over comments from people who think that businesses that can't survive a wage hike deserve to close. To me, a city devoid of local retail sounds boring and soulless. What I can't understand is how people who make such comments think that business closures benefit low-wage workers? An exemption, or graduated scale for true small businesses (i.e. 15 employees with a revenue limit) would go a long way toward allowing local retail to survive, make a huge difference to the vitality of our neighborhood retail districts & apply to a very, very small number of total minimum wage jobs. They'd probably have a hard time keeping quality workers, but at least they'd have a chance at survival.

Well I certainly won't ever patronize Liberty again. Not that I liked it much, anyways.

True story: The last time I was a Liberty and asked for a cocktail, dude behind the bar confessed that while he was the only bartender working at the time, he had no bartending experience and didn't know how to make any of the cocktails on the menu. Which was surreal and comical. And sad.

Also the parking on 15th is fucking balls. Plus no Canterbury. Maybe this will help thin that out!

I AM NOT A CROOK!

Andrew Friedman should have to buy all his books from the women's bookstore in PORTLANDIA.

The author of this article has a house, child, and can afford to eat at restaurants. How nice. Their employees will never have those luxuries without a living wage (or a whole lot of government assistance).

@64 , This is probably the most level headed and best comment in this thread. But most of these Amazon employees just buy all their shit on Amazon anyway. Not like they give a damn about shopping local.

@63 , I'm talking about a way to somehow balance his costs. Either way, a $15 minimum wage would mean he would have to make some sacrifices to be able to maintain. Maybe a 10-20% price increase on menu items, maybe they have to take 10% of tips, or maybe they just have to reduce their hours during non-peak times.

All that said, I'm certainly for some sort of increases, but maybe a tax credit to these small businesses to deal with the price increase would be appropriate as well. There is no way you are going to increase demands on small businesses by that huge of a margin and not effect consumers in a big way as well. Its just not possible, because Math.

Somebody tell me again why a business that can only survive on the willingness of its employees to suffer poverty even deserves to exist.

Somebody tell me again why a business that can only survive on the willingness of the community to absorb the social costs of its poverty wages even deserves to exist.

Honest question: If wages go up, but prices go up, too, doesn't that just leave everyone where they were to begin with, relatively speaking?

New Rule: If you're going to talk about not raising people's wages, you have to disclose your personal income.

@ 50
Whats is their worth(as you noted they should be paid closer to it)? $15 dollars !!
Should the high-school guy (1st job) be making the same as the 40yr old who is has much greater experience in the minimum wage job. The answer is maybe right...based on skills right... I just think for a real discussion you now 15 crowd should quit the rhetoric(bullshit this, fuck assholes that). The whole moral high-ground stuff is just repulsive ..keep making yourself think that your better then this business owner*

@60 Higher wages lead directly to more spending at bars & restaurants. It *is* a fact. See http://www.bls.gov/cex/csxann12.pdf page 9.

Raising income from $15K- $19K ($9.32/hour full-time) to $30K- $39K ($15/hr full-time) increases spending on "Food away from home" from $1197 -> $1746 (+46%) and increases spending on "Alcoholic beverages" from $193 -> $335 (73%)

@74 The corrections need to happen all the way up. That 40 year old should have been making significantly more for a long time anyway. Wages have been totally stagnant in most industries since 1980 and have totally not kept up with inflation.

I still can't believe that my dad was making $11 an hour as an apprentice in TN in 1987 and that's still higher than today's minimum wage.

Considering that this guy understands business 101 and pays himself he is included in his payroll expenses. The 5% is on top of his paycheck that he writes to himself. Boo Fucking Hoo.

I wonder why no business owners are coming out to talk about what will happen? (note sarcasm)

People were right, you shouldn't talk numbers. People don't care. We are not a very math literate society and too few understand what it takes to run a business.

I wonder how many of these people who are fine with increased prices have every used a retail business as a showroom and then bought on Amazon to save some money or online from out of state so they could save on the sales tax?

People are so willing to part with their money and pay more for a better society, well until it comes to them opening their wallets.

@64 I too worry more about small retail than eateries, so thanks for a expressing that concern thoughtfully. And Liberty is a wonderful, friendly neighborhood joint. Thanks to the owner for having the courage to write this piece!

@60: Regarding restaurants and bars marketing to techies, well, if that segment of the market withers (which it won't, since their wages will tend to go up as well), then people who know how to run businesses might cater to those who find themselves with more income - those people now making a higher wage. Or don't you like hanging around those kind of people?

@74
Thank you! The rhetoric is all coming from the 15Now people (poverty wages, rich motherfucker blah blah)

Really, 15Now is Seattle's Tea Party, Sawant is Seattle's Herman Cain, "15" is there "9,9,9!" and jeers of "poverty wages" and "rich bastard" are their version of the Tea Party's "he's a Muslim atheist from Kenya!" cries.

To the people saying they tip because servers get paid so little, would you change the amount you tip if their wages to go $15/hour?

I find tipping to be a loathsome cultural norm. Why should I have to pay someone to do their job, or flaunt wealth by dropping money on the table, or patronize a business that doesn't pay it's workers enough to live? (I don't actually have any wealth to flaunt, so I guess that part's moot.)

People should just pay their employees what they're worth rather than trying to fuck them as hard as possible because the job market's so bad.

Here is my question about this tip credit that no 15Now lemming can answer:
If we are to only count wages for government purposes of determining poverty (as you suggest) than why not only include wages for determining wealth as well? In other words....
Don't count tips for MW? Than DON'T COUNT CAPITAL GAINS FOR TAXATION!
Or is what's good for the goose not good for the gander?

@84
I work for tips. I make 40,0000 a year. If I just made the 15/hour I would be down to 31,000/year.

Don't like tipping? Move to France, where service is just as slow as their reaction to a German invasion.

blah blah bullshit stuff from blabby bar owner people.....he's right prices will go up...so what? there are too many bars and people can drink less and still live so no biggeee. when the state stores were closing and there was a threat of mucho increase in drink prices...PANIC...but really bar prices don't matter...people will still go and will still pay...hundreds of years of evidence of that in the world. yea,,,,get out of here with your widows and orphan bar owner stuff and your spaghetti sauce preludes...it's just silliness....maybe you need to close. I do sympathize with some other businesses who may face insurmountable trials with 15, but bars, come on....they are everywhere...nothing special....who cares if they go bye bye.

@86 I bad! I meant 40,000 a year. Damn hair trigger.

@23 your math is wrong. 18% is his TOTAL INCREASE IN COSTS. The increase in Payroll is 60% (9.32->15). 60% of 30% is 18%.

QED he must raise prices by 18% to maintain his profit margin.

@81
I worked in a high end restaurant near drug dealers who made a ton of money...and none of them stepped foot into the restaurant, even though they could easily afford it and we would have taken care of them like anyone else.

Why? Working class people have trouble leaving their comfort zones, even when they have the money to do so. I know because I come from a working class family and getting my dad to go with me to a nice restaurant on me is like pulling teeth.

If lower-wage workers make 15/hour, they'll just eat more at low end restaurants while mid and high end will suffer.

Simple redistribution of wealth. If you want more money go f*cking earn more money.
You were lied to up to this point...you are not special and you do not deserve anything...you must earn it when you become an adult.
People like Andrew are the backbone of our economy and should be appreciated, not made to look like a villain.
Being an American gives you the right to equal opportunity but does not guarantee you any level of success. That is up to you.
Yeah, being an adult is hard. Welcome to the real world.

@23 your math is wrong. 18% is his TOTAL INCREASE IN COSTS. The increase in Payroll is 60% (9.32->15). 60% of 30% is 18%.

QED he must raise prices by 18% to maintain his profit margin.

@73
I make 40,000 a year, don't own a car, work in the restaurant industry and come from a poor family, and I am 100% against any and all MW increase.

Happy now?

And to all you people repeating the lie that "raising the MW doesn't cost jobs", doing just that almost destroyed the economy of America Samoa.
Please stop lying:
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014…

@72 ding ding. Not sure why everyone who is suggesting that businesses increase their prices also suggests that people with their increased salary will be able to afford to pay the increased price.

If you can't afford the cost of a thing now, if I give you more money but also raise the price of the object, it's a zero sum game.

Now ok, theoretically since the total operating cost doesn't increase by the same percent as the wage increase, you might pull in more customers. i.e. If your non-customer has $5 of disposable income now and you sell a $5 beer, he's prolly not going to buy your beer...but when you have a $6 beer and the non-customer has $7 he might become your customer. It's a pretty complicated model probably to predict when a person will take on truly new spending when they get more money. Undeniably prices will have to go up, and it's true that people will have more money to spend, but the delta between disposable income and cost of goods won't close completely, even if it might narrow down.

@94: But then you're someone who thinks capitalism is voluntary.

@96: "If you can't afford the cost of a thing now, if I give you more money but also raise the price of the object, it's a zero sum game."

Absolutely ridiculous.

@95 AHAHAHAHAHAH!!!

The GAO states that the garment manufacturing and tuna canning industries decided they couldn't afford to lose the "profit" by paying a decent living wage. So, they hightailed it to countries where slave wages were acceptable.

Yay capitalism!!

I'd like to see the restaurant industry export their labor.

@72 & @96

We're talking about raising minimum wage by 60%. Prices will not increase by 60% - they'll increase by 10-20% on the high end. This gives the lowest-paid members of society significantly more buying power, which is the end goal.

Middle-class earners will likely see a small bump in their wages - you don't get to pay skilled workers the same amount as unskilled workers, or they'll just quit to do something easier. They'll likely see little change in their buying power.

Highly paid workers, like Amazon drones pulling in $80-100K, will likely see no change in their wages. They'll also see no change in their buying power, because they currently only spend a very small portion of their income on goods and services.

@72

Everyone except those with piles of assets. Inflation would be a wash, but for that. The rich see their wealth evaporate when wages and prices rise. Over the long term, the effect of inflation is to decrease the gross inequality of our society.

Why do you think the establishment is so violently opposed to anything inflationary? They're protecting the 1%.

In the middle term, you can't just leave wages at $15/hr. That's how we fell so far behind where we were 40 years ago. It will have to be raised above $15 to keep up with inflation.

But don't shed too many tears for the Koch brothers. There's myriad other ways they have to fight creeping equality. This minimum wage increase is just one little piece of the puzzle.