Uh-Oh: Look What Seattle’s Minimum Wage Did To The City’s Restaurants

No, I’m not talking about San Fran’s overpriced burritos.

The American Enterprise Institute (AEI) recently published a report, showing the devastating effects of the left’s oh-so glorious minimum wage hike in Seattle. The city is implementing the new wages in slow increments, but as predicted, businesses are forced to cut employee hours, the prices of products are rising and people are losing their jobs– especially in the food industry. In fact, over 1000 restaurant jobs have been lost since the increase. It hasn’t been that bad since the recession in 2009.

 The chart above shows that the Emerald City MSA started experiencing a decline in restaurant employment around the first of the year (when the state minimum wage increased to $9.47 per hour, the highest state minimum wage in the country), and the 1,300 job loss between January and June is the largest decline over that period since 2009 during the Great Recession (data here). The loss of 1,000 restaurant jobs in May following the minimum wage increase in April was the largest one month job decline since a 1,300 drop in January 2009, again during the Great Recession.

And for the naysayers out there, restaurant employment actually went up on a national scale during the same time period.

“Restaurant employment nationally increased by 130,700 jobs (and by 1.2%) during that same period,” the report said. “Restaurant employment in Washington increased 3.2% and by 2,800 jobs.”

Can you imagine what it’ll look like when they’re up to the full $15 minimum wage in 2017?

*Shudders*

Again, this is only a small example of how much this sucks. Heck, some workers are actually requesting fewer hours because –GASP– they’re making too much money and no longer qualify for subsidized housing and food stamps. That tells me that the $15 minimum wage was NEVER about earning enough money to come off the government's teat. Nah, people want to keep the handouts and use the extra cash to buy that super cute Gucci purse.

I should also note that Bernie Sanders recently drew a crowd of 15,000 in Seattle. He basically promised to end income inequality and give everyone more free stuff.

The people of Seattle need to figure out what the heck they want, because I’m getting mixed signals here. Their socialist utopia may sound nice, but it doesn't work in the real world. 

h/t The Daily Caller