Countdown to Seattle’s new minimum wage

In two weeks, Seattle’s $15 minimum wage law takes effect and everyone’s expecting consequences.

For example, last week, a magazine article noted that there are four restaurants closing or about to close in Seattle and a blog post from a conservative think tank pointed a finger at the $15 an hour minimum wage. The post went national. Forbes, New York Post, and Rush Limbaugh picked it up.

Dori: No surprise that Seattle restaurants can’t afford to stay open

But when a Seattle Times reporter called up the restaurants that were mentioned – in each case, the owner said the $15 wage had nothing to do with the decision to close. One owner said, yes, she was closing one of her restaurants, but still runs three others and was about to open two more.

It makes sense because Seattle has one of the healthiest economies in America. It’s full of young single people who can’t be bothered cook for themselves.

So I called up the author of the now-famous blog, Paul Guppy of the Washington Policy Center, to get his comment and he said it may be a case of self-censorship.

“It’s very hard to get business owners to say, ‘I had to close my business because of the $15 an hour minimum wage,'” Guppy explained.

Right, but they could also be saying it because it’s not happening.

“You’re right, but it’s an extremely courageous business who will say in a media interview, ‘I closed my business because minimum wage was too high,'” Guppy said.

Related: Judge rejects franchisees’ discrimination claims

So, I guess we’ll just have to wait to see who’s right. But for the record, restaurants are saying that the main consequence of the $15 wage is that the price of a $10 lunch could go up (drum roll) 50 cents.

I might just have to settle for half as much Mascarpone on my Tiramisu latte.