Posted on 05/22/2015 8:37:03 PM PDT by grundle
A pizza shop owner in Seattle says the city's new minimum wage law is forcing her to close her doors.
The new law says businesses have six years to phase into giving employees $15 an hour.
Devin Jeran was happy to get a raise when Seattle's minimum wage went up to $11 an hour at the beginning of the month.
“I definitely recognize that having more money is important, especially in a city as expensive as this one,” he said.
He'll only enjoy that bigger paycheck for a few more months. In August, his boss is shutting down Z Pizza, putting him and his 11 coworkers out of work.
“Fortunately she keeps us in the loop, and didn't just tell us last minute,” Jeran said.
Ritu Shah Burnham doesn't want to go out of business, but says she can't afford the city's mandated wage hikes.
“I've let one person go since April 1, I've cut hours since April 1, I've taken them myself because I don't pay myself. I've also raised my prices a little bit. Yeah, there's no other way to do it,” she said.
Small businesses in the city have up to six more years to phase in the new $15 an hour minimum wage.
But Shah Burnham says even though she only has one store with 12 employees, she's considered part of the Z Pizza franchise so she has to give raises in just two years.
“I know that I would have stayed here if I had seven years, just like everyone else, if I had an even playing field. The discrimination I'm feeling towards my small business right now makes me not want to stay and do anything in Seattle,” she said.
The director of Now Seattle, which rallied for the minimum wage, had no comment, only saying "Restaurants open and close all the time, for various reasons."
Shah Burnham is concerned about where her employees will end up when she does close.
“I absolutely am terrified for them,” she said. “I have no idea where they're going to find jobs, because if I'm cutting hours, I imagine everyone is across the board.”
Seattle is the first major city to pass a law that gives workers $15 an hour. It comes out to about $30,000 a year if an employee works full-time.
This reminded me of what Hillary said in 2008: "The ['Hillary Care'] plan prescribed some eye-popping maximum fines: $5,000 for refusing to join the government mandated health plan; $5,000 for failing to pay premiums on time; 15 years in prison for doctors who received ‘anything of value’ in exchange for helping patients short circuit bureaucracy; $10,000 a day for faulty physician paperwork; and $50,000 for unauthorized patient treatment. When told the plan could bankrupt small businesses, Mrs. Clinton said, 'I can’t be responsible for every under-capitalized small business in America'!" -- Tony Snow reporting on Hillary's health care plan
I don’t know where I got 2008 …I think it was 1992.
That’s how it is in a business. You can’t argue with the bottom line. If your expenses are greater than your revenue, you lose money. Nothing can change that.
Business owners work long hours, and get paid only if there’s any money left over after paying employees, rent, taxes, fees and supplies.
“”Pretty soon they will pass another law forbidding businesses from closing due to wage increases. I’m only half joking.””
It’s the ‘Obama Way’..
Our debt is over $18,000,000,000,000. We can't pay that back so we must make that amount a pittance. So what if it destroys America? That works right into their plan.
How dare them! A companies sole purpose is to provide a livable wage to it’s employees. Everybody knows that. /s
It’s a shame something doesn’t happen to it.
I can’t believe they allowed that to be built and erected in a free country.
Restaurants will be the hardest hit in this. Typically, in a large metro area, new restaurants have a 50% attrition (closing) rate in their first six months. Then half of the remaining restaurants close within a year. So a 75% failure rate in one year.
So, if you like your restaurant, you better enjoy it while it lasts.
I think I’ve read something like this. As stated up above “Directive 10-289”. Who is John Galt?
Many union contracts are tied to the minimum wage, Minimum wage goes up, so does the union wage...
Employers both public and private have no choice...
One issue noted in the article is that the owner is a franchisee who has 2 years to reach $15. Her competition contains a good percentage of independents who have five years. Because she has a franchised shop, she will be at a competitive disadvantage for 3 years, which means she may well face 3 years of deficit.
That’s a hard pill to swallow for a small business.
Of course, Z's owner must be a liberal, or she would think of that...The suburbs must be Liberals too, of they would.
That smug arrogant SOB is a typical Marxist.
I charge 15/hour for some computer work. I guess if I was in Seattle I could charge 45/hr. Seattle is beautiful, especially the houseboats on Lake Washington.
Public-school educated individuals, as well as liberal government leaders like those running Seattle, have a "Scrooge McDuck" understanding of business economics. They figure all profits are hoarded in a huge vault somewhere by greedy owners who refuse to "share". Ergo, a $15 minimum wage increase is no problem, and businesses that shut down are just doing it out of spite.
What Marxist put a statue of Lenin up? I guess the northeast isn’t as bad as Seattle, Hartford doesn’t have a Lenin statue.
“Restaurants open and close all the time, for various reasons.”
What a cavalier attitude for one who advocated for the increase that will leave most of those advocated for unemployed.
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