Well if you look at the employment rates for Washington state the rate is unchanged for the past year.
That’s ‘looking’ very selectively.
How does this ‘look’?
Seattle-based restaurant chain declares bankruptcy, cites high minimum wage
Restaurants Unlimited says high wage expenses for workers could not be offset by profits.
https://www.foxnews.com/us/restaurant-chain-blames-high-minimum-wage-for-bankruptcy
Businesses fail all the time for all kinds of reasons. But when Restaurants Unlimited filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last week, people noticed. The company owns 35 upscale restaurants located primarily on the West Coast, including seven in Seattle.
In its filing, it declared, “Over the last three years, the company’s profitability has been significantly impacted by progressive wage laws along the Pacific coast…the result was to increase the company’s annual wage expenses by an aggregate of $10.6 million.”
It went on to cite three examples where minimum wages have risen dramatically over the last three years. Portland now requires $12.50 an hour, an increase of 35 percent. San Francisco’s minimum wage has climbed 41 percent to $15.59 per hour. And Seattle, the first city with a $15 minimum wage, now forces large employers to pay at least $16 an hour.
Restaurants Unlimited, which is based in Seattle, did raise menu prices and even added a living wage surcharge to bills. But it still lost money.
“I think what Restaurants Unlimited found out is that they can’t pass along the full impact of that labor cost increase to customers through their prices, said Michael Saltsman of the Employment Policies Institute. “People can stay home, people can eat out less often.”