NYC Min Wage goes to $15/hr and people lose their jobs
From iGeek
- NYC restaurant jobs were down by almost 3,000 by raising minimum to $13.50 (before the $15/hr even kicked in), the worst annual decline since 9/11 in 2001
- Gabriela’s Restaurant and Tequila Bar, a margarita and taco staple on the Upper West Side for the past 25 years, is closing at the end of September, because Minimum Wage caused them to lower their quality to compensate for higher labor costs, and tipped the whole business scales against them. Now 80 people are unemployed.
- In a survey of 324 full-service restaurants, the New York City Hospitality Alliance found that 76.5 percent of respondents cut staff hours and 36.3 percent eliminated jobs, including whole layers of middle management, in response to mandated wage increases.
- Ilili and Ilili Box (Lebonese food), says rising wages forced him to cut hours for his 180 employees, yank labor-intensive dishes from the menu, and cut back on staff education events like wine seminars.
- Lido Restaurant in Harlem says they had to cut back on shifts and be more stringent about overtime and scrapped expanding to a bigger location.
- Lalito’s recently raised its menu prices 10-15 percent
- Illinois and New Jersey took one look at all those new unemployed workers and welfare recipients and passed a $15 minimum wage as well. (California, Massachusetts had already jumped on board).
