SEATTLE NEWS ARCHIVES & FEATURES

Dori: I told you so — $15 minimum wage costs restaurant jobs in new survey

Apr 19, 2019, 4:03 PM | Updated: Apr 20, 2019, 12:21 am

$15 minimum wage...

Councilmember Kshama Sawant was one of the biggest advocates for the $15 minimum wage. (KIRO Radio)

(KIRO Radio)

Do you think government cares about you as an individual? I guarantee you I know the answer. Government couldn’t care less about you. And that’s never more apparent than when you have a bunch of “snake oil salesmen” like Kshama Sawant and the rest of the socialists on the Seattle City Council touting the $15 minimum wage “because they care about the workers.”

It was not because they cared about the workers. They cared about having a slogan so that they could fundraise off of it, and — in Sawant’s case — to build a national profile, because Seattle is too puny for a great socialist thinker like her.

I told you when they were first debating the increased minimum wage that they would hurt the very people they were trying to help. I was proven correct when one of the elements of the $15/an hour wage was to get a University of Washington study to see if it’s helping people. The professors realized that the raise is actually hurting people more than its helping — they got an hourly raise, but they’re losing even more in hourly cutbacks.

RELATED: $15 wage activist Pramila Jayapal wasn’t paying her interns

So, what did the Seattle City Council do? Did they get rid of the $15 minimum wage? No. They disregarded the UW study that they commissioned, and then found a $15/an hour zealot professor from Berkeley who concocted a survey to show that it’s helping people.

There’s more proof today. In one of the largest surveys of restaurants and restaurant workers — 4,000 restaurants and 112,000 employees — they found that 43 percent of the restaurants have cut jobs in areas where the minimum wage has been hiked — 43 percent. And that’s in a healthy economy.

In addition, 64 percent of those restaurants have reduced employee hours, 26 percent have replaced people with technology, and almost 10 percent have closed altogether.

The net effect is that the minimum wage increase has hurt minimum wage workers far more than it has helped them. I told you so. It’s more proof that the socialists do not know much about economics and they do not care about you.

I think we are in an eternal struggle for control over our lives. Government and corporations want to control us, and we have to fight with all of our might to be free from that control, to be independent, to be sovereign. That’s why I want smaller government. That’s why I’m always fighting back against the lunatics who seem to be increasing in number here in the Puget Sound area.

snapchat sumner sexual assault...

KIRO 7 News Staff

Police: Suspect used Snapchat to contact teen before sexually assaulting her at her Sumner home

Sumner police have arrested a suspect accused of using a social media platform to contact a teenager before allegedly raping her in her home.

31 minutes ago

shooting youth crime bite of seattle...

John Curley Show

‘Protection of these juveniles is disastrous to the safety of the state’: SPOG president sounds alarm on youth crime after Bite of Seattle shooting

KIRO host John Curley brought on Seattle Police Officers Guild Vice President Daniel Loux to discuss the fallout of the shooting.

45 minutes ago

Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., left, who is running to fill the seat of Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., gr...

Associated Press

Lindsey Graham returns home one last time for his funeral in South Carolina

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — The Washington powerbroker Sen. Lindsey Graham returned home to South Carolina for the last time Wednesday for his funeral and burial. After Graham was eulogized Tuesday in the nation’s capital as an indefatigable dealmaker by the president, vice president and others, mourners in Columbia prepared to remember him Wednesday as the […]

1 hour ago

President Donald Trump speaks at the funeral of Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., at the Washington Nati...

Associated Press

Trump and DOJ ask Supreme Court to toss $83 million defamation verdict in E. Jean Carroll case

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump and the Justice Department are asking the Supreme Court to toss an $83 million defamation verdict won by writer E. Jean Carroll after she accused him of sexual assault, saying he can’t be sued for comments he made while he was president. It’s the second time Trump has asked […]

1 hour ago

sales tax taxes seattle...

Charlie Harger

Harger: Seattle took in 40% more in taxes, spent all of it, and now wants the highest sales tax of any major city in America

This fall, Seattle voters, who are generally open to raising taxes on themselves, will decide whether to raise the sales tax to expand bus service, and whether to boost the library levy.

2 hours ago

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres arrives for a news conference after his join meet...

Associated Press

Cyprus’ ethnic split must be resolved to stabilize a tumultuous region, UN chief says

NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) — Resolving Cyprus’ ethnic division is “absolutely crucial” for stabilizing a turbulent region where persistent conflicts have the potential to escalate, U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres said Wednesday. Guterres made a rare, two-day visit to Cyprus to underline his commitment to restarting deadlocked peace talks on a deal to end the 52-year-old rift […]

2 hours ago

Dori: I told you so — $15 minimum wage costs restaurant jobs in new survey