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.

Please follow our Community Guidelines

The dawn illuminates the Senate side of the Capitol in Washington, Monday, Nov. 2, 2026, a day befo...

Associated Press

When will we know who controls Congress? It could be a while

WASHINGTON (AP) — The stakes in Tuesday’s election — which party will control Congress — are crystal clear. But when that will be known is impossible to say. The Associated Press will be calling races in all 435 House districts and the 35 Senate contests that are up for election this year. Control of the […]

35 minutes ago

Abortion rights supporters rally inside the Missouri Capitol on Jan. 21, 2026, in Jefferson City, M...

Associated Press

Trump’s agenda meets the ballot box as states vote on abortion, redistricting and voter ID mandates

WASHINGTON (AP) — A battle over abortion rights is playing out in several states Tuesday as voters decide 145 proposed laws and constitutional amendments, including some that could affect voting for future elections. The ballot measures provide a political undercard for a high-profile midterm election that will determine which party controls Congress, state legislatures and […]

36 minutes ago

Senate candidate Rep. Ashley Hinson, R-Iowa, left, speaks with President Donald Trump on stage duri...

Associated Press

A referendum on Trump, election monitors and a Democratic shift: What to watch on Election Day

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump has repeatedly encouraged voters to pretend he’s on the ballot this Election Day. He’s not, of course. But there is reason to believe that Tuesday’s midterms, above all, will be a referendum on his performance over the last two years. History, polling and early voting numbers suggest it could […]

44 minutes ago

Whit, 2, sits on the shoulders of father Hayden Anderson-Michaud as he casts his ballot at a pollin...

Associated Press

Election Day arrives after a surge in early voting, with observers keeping close watch at the polls

WASHINGTON (AP) — The final day of voting in this year’s midterm elections arrives Tuesday against a backdrop of uncertainty after a year in which President Donald Trump has tried to interfere in how states run their elections and sown doubts about the outcome should Republicans lose. Millions of Americans already have cast their ballots, […]

51 minutes ago

President Donald Trump walks from the podium after speaking at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool...

Associated Press

After Election Day, Trump stares down the specter of Democratic probes and the race to succeed him

WASHINGTON (AP) — For Donald Trump, Tuesday’s elections will chart the course for the final two years of his presidency. If his party loses control of Congress in the midterm elections, the rest of his time in office is likely to be consumed by Democratic-led investigations into his administration and his business dealings, and possibly […]

53 minutes ago

People wait in line to cast their ballot at a polling location open for early voting at the Curtis ...

Associated Press

Midterm elections coming to a close as voters pass judgment on Trump’s second term

WASHINGTON (AP) — Voters struggling with high prices and angry over an unpopular war with Iran will decide whether to drastically shift power in Washington in midterm elections Tuesday that will serve as a referendum on President Donald Trump ’s second term. Democrats were cautiously optimistic about their prospects as they watched Republicans spend the […]

57 minutes ago

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