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Seattle’s Wage Mandate Kills Restaurants: The legal minimum is going to $16.39 an hour, while my pay drops to zero.
Wall Street Journal ^ | December 12, 2019 | Simone Barron

Posted on 12/13/2019 4:37:49 AM PST by karpov

This city’s minimum wage is rising to $16.39 an hour on Jan. 1. Instead of receiving a bigger paycheck, I’m left without any pay at all due to the policy change. That’s because the restaurant where I’ve worked for six years is closing as a consequence of the city’s harmful minimum-wage experiment.

I work for Tom Douglas, one of the best-known restaurateurs in Seattle. Mr. Douglas is in many ways responsible for the city’s reputation as a foodie paradise, and he recently celebrated his 30th anniversary in business. He’s a great boss, and his employees tend to stay at the company for a long time.

But being an established chef and a good employer doesn’t save you from the burden of a sharp minimum-wage increase, up 73% from $9.47 in 2015. For large-scale employers like Mr. Douglas, there’s no separate rate for workers who earn tips. In Washington and a handful of other states, tips aren’t counted as income earned on the job. That means restaurateurs are expected to pay servers like me the full minimum wage in addition to our considerable tip income.

When rent is too high, labor costs too much, and customers don’t want to pay $40 for a roast-chicken entree, the only way for many operators to ease the pain is to close.

So now, after six years working at Mr. Douglas’s restaurant Tanakasan, I need to find a new work home. My first thought was to go back to Sitka & Spruce, a restaurant where I had once worked. (I previously had to take on a second job there after the rising minimum wage forced Tanakasan to adopt a no-tipping payment model, drastically reducing my income.)

As it turns out, I can’t return to Sitka & Spruce. [It is closing too.]

(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; US: Washington
KEYWORDS: bluezones; layoffs; liberallogic; minimumwage; radicalleft; seattle; washington
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To: bert
Why should I give a damn? You are a fool to live in Seattle.
Sorry if this seems like a pile-on, but leaving is a horrible strategy. It won't be long until there is nowhere left to go. The only realistic strategy is to fight back.
41 posted on 12/13/2019 5:51:32 AM PST by Tacticalman
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To: karpov

Lefties don’t want people working, they want them unemployed and wards of the state.


42 posted on 12/13/2019 5:55:52 AM PST by Fido969 (In!)
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To: Damifino

“Why is everyone slagging Simone?”
Asking myself the same question. She has been on the job for 6 years and probably had some idea about state gov’t hourly increases and could be a red flag. I don’t know how she voted and don’t care. With the holidays approaching and the thought of no job...I feel sorry for her.


43 posted on 12/13/2019 5:55:59 AM PST by duckman ( Not tired of winning!)
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To: DAC21

A customer tried to “tip” me after I’d taught him to prepare bulk mail. I stepped back several steps and indicated loudly so the inspectors in the overhead tunnel would hear. “No, I won’t take your BRIBE”


44 posted on 12/13/2019 6:07:59 AM PST by ASA Vet (Make American Intelligence Great Again. Bring back ASA.)
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To: certrtwngnut

I felt it when I read it so no wurries.


45 posted on 12/13/2019 6:11:37 AM PST by SkyDancer ( ~ Just Consider Me A Random Fact Generator ~ Eat Sleep Fly Repeat ~)
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To: bert

“There can be no coexistence in the future. No live and let live. The Leftists must be absolutely and finally destroyed.”

The Truth.

Some folks actually think they can be friends with cancer. Sheesh...


46 posted on 12/13/2019 6:13:44 AM PST by moovova
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To: karpov
minimum-wage experiment.

It is not an experiment. It is an agenda.

They are determined to turn America into a socialist disaster, and they don't care the collateral costs.

47 posted on 12/13/2019 6:15:45 AM PST by LouAvul
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To: certrtwngnut
I must away to my fainting couch.

Fainting_Couch

LOL

48 posted on 12/13/2019 6:16:39 AM PST by SkyDancer ( ~ Just Consider Me A Random Fact Generator ~ Eat Sleep Fly Repeat ~)
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To: cgbg

“The left is in the process of destroying one of the greatest food cities in America. I want my reparations from each and every leftist!”

Paid in Foie Gras or Cheeseburgers?


49 posted on 12/13/2019 6:16:52 AM PST by Rebelbase
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To: karpov

My wife and I eat in restaurants where we pick up our food when it’s ready. No tipping and prices have remained reasonable.


50 posted on 12/13/2019 6:17:13 AM PST by Huskrrrr
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To: karpov

TN hasn’t been hit with this yet, but small businesses are downsizing anyway. Extra charges to make a pizza and deliver. Banks closed Drive Thrus. And if you are over 40 forget it. I’m not paying $30 for a delivered Pizza, Digiorno’s will have to do. We rarely eat out, but when we do we SPLIT a meal, drink water, not that $3 glass of colored water they called Ice Tea that has no taste.


51 posted on 12/13/2019 6:29:33 AM PST by GailA (Intractable Pain, a Subset of Chronic pain Last a Life TIME at Level 10.)
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To: PapaBear3625

A little inconvenient truth there.

Good find!


52 posted on 12/13/2019 6:34:38 AM PST by rockrr ( Everything is different now...)
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To: karpov

“When rent is too high, labor costs too much, and customers don’t want to pay $40 for a roast-chicken entree, the only way for many operators to ease the pain is to close.”

Well, there’s always the owner-operated food trucks! But I’m sure the Seattle Department of Health will begin harassing those too.


53 posted on 12/13/2019 6:36:15 AM PST by Tallguy (Facts be d@mned! The narrative must be protected at all costs!)
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To: karpov

Big chain restaurants want the competition shut down.


54 posted on 12/13/2019 6:40:39 AM PST by deadrock
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To: EC Washington

The “problem” with Seattle (and most of western part of the state) is that Boeing, Microsoft, Amazon, Gargoyle, and Farcebook artificially buoy the rest of the economy. Cost of living is a bit higher (but not insane like LA) but the economy is more resilient than other parts of the nation.

So the lefty rulers have come to believe that they are surrounded by money trees just waiting to be plucked. There is massive amounts of money being made in Seattle and the gubmint wants “their share”. Roughly stated, “With all this money floating around how can you be so stingy?!”

The towns that surround cities like Seattle - like the one I live in - are like canaries in the mineshaft. The things the loonies in Seattle do invariably have an effect on us...and we don’t have the deep pockets that Seattle has.


55 posted on 12/13/2019 6:50:54 AM PST by rockrr ( Everything is different now...)
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To: FreedomNotSafety
“I’m proudly progressive in my politics...minimum-wage laws...hurt the very workers they’re trying to protect.
“Ms. Barron is a restaurant worker and co-founder of the Full Service Workers Alliance.”
Last paragraph from article.

I couldn't access that part without financially supporting WSJ, so I read the comments here and thought everyone was exceptionally grumpy this morning.
But yes. Lady you asked for it. You probably send your kids to public school too (if you haven't had them killed by abortionists), so you've got some more hard lessons coming your way. May your politics dog you all of your days.

56 posted on 12/13/2019 6:54:38 AM PST by Buttons12
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To: EQAndyBuzz

In India.


57 posted on 12/13/2019 6:57:37 AM PST by DownInFlames (Galsd)
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To: Always A Marine

Well said.


58 posted on 12/13/2019 7:04:39 AM PST by Mr. Lucky
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To: karpov

You and Douglas can move your restaurant to Suwanee Georgia under the condition that you leave your liberal politics behind. We are so hurting for good restaurants.


59 posted on 12/13/2019 7:44:37 AM PST by GingisK
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To: karpov

What a disaster.


60 posted on 12/13/2019 7:45:31 AM PST by trisham (Zen is not easy. It takes effort to attain nothingness. And then what do you have? Bupkis.)
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