Report: D.C. Restaurants Hit Hard by Minimum Wage Hikes, Losing 8 Jobs a Day
1,400 jobs lost in the last six months alone.
A new report which draws on analysis from the American Enterprise Institute provides damning proof that Democrats' minimum wage increase hurts the very people they claim to champion.
Thus far, Washington, D.C. has lost 1,400 jobs in just the last six months alone, many of them in the restaurant services industry. The Washington Free Beacon reports:
Restaurants in the nation’s capital experienced their worst hiring period in 15 years, fueling speculation that wage hikes are reducing employment opportunities.
Employment in the food service industry fell in Washington, D.C. even as it continued to increase in the region. Restaurants shed 1,400 jobs in the first six months of 2016, a three percent decrease and the largest loss of jobs since the 2001 recession, according to an analysis from American Enterprise Institute scholar Mark Perry.
The steep drop was isolated to D.C. Neighboring suburbs in Virginia and Maryland added nearly 3,000 jobs over the same period, a 1.6 percent increase in hiring.
That's right, suburbs that do not operate under the same wage standards as the District have been steadily adding jobs to their respective communities, while the nation's capital loses jobs at record speed.
According to the report, Perry says the numbers definitively point to D.C.'s minimum wage requirements:
Washington, D.C. began the year with a higher-than-average wage for tipped employees in the restaurant industry. Tipped employees in the nation’s capital earn a base wage of $2.77, almost 30 percent above the federal minimum of $2.13 that is used by Virginia. The city also mandated a $10.50 minimum hourly wage for non-tipped employees in January—higher than Virginia’s $7.25 and Maryland’s $8.75 rate.
Perry asked how, if D.C. restaurants can't absorb this rate of pay, will they be expected to deal with the proposed $15 per hour hike in coming years.
As always, the Left is nearsighted on this issue. Rather than focus time, money and energy on raising the hourly wages of service employees, they could instead work to help people acquire the skill sets needed to work in higher-paid, salaried industries and progress in their respective careers. Never looking at the big picture, they see these wage hikes as a victory for the little guy, for the worker, but it does nothing to secure their actual futures. It also doesn't help if the employer cuts that worker's job, lessens that worker's scheduled hours, or stops hiring all together.
As additional food for thought, consider the video posted above discussing a former McDonald's CEO's call to replace $15-an-hour employees with robots. The move, he said, would not only be more cost effective for the company, but prove more efficient as well, considering robots are less fallible than humans.
http://www.truthrevolt.org/news/report-dc-restaurants-hit-hard-minimum-wage-hikes-losing-8-jobs-day