A 6% increase is closing down restaurants? 36% to 42% labor increase? So a $10.00 entree now is $10.60. Sucks but not earth shattering. Something else is going on here.
36% to 42% is a 16.66% increase NOT 6%.
The way it works is that the restaurant has to bring the workers’ tip receipts up to the minimum wage. So in high-end places, where the prices are high, the waiters make plenty of money from tips and the restaurant doesn’t have to supplement them at all. I think they pay them a minimum, $2 or so. In lower-end places, like diners, it makes the economics of the restaurant infeasible. Very mean to mom-and-pop type places. Means nothing to the fancy places.
If it was as simple as just increasing prices, maybe you would have a point.