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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (July 13, 2019)
A7 THE ASTORIAN • SATuRdAy, July 13, 2019 PRO-CON Raise the federal minimum wage? Pro: Maybe company wasn’t doing it right S EATTLE — A Seattle restaurant partly because I found this approach so chain that just declared bankruptcy heavy-handed. When City Light raises is blaming it in part on our city’s power rates, restaurants don’t add an experiment in higher minimum wages, “electrical rate surcharge” to your bill. which I see has whipped conservatives So why for this, except to make a state- ment? Just roll it into the food prices and into a full “told you so” lather. be done with it. “Over the past three years, the com- pany’s profitability has been signifi- The charges were so unpopular in cantly impacted by progressive wage Portland that this same restaurant chain laws along the Pacific coast,” rolled them back down there. said a court filing for Restaurants Local restaurateur John Howie Unlimited, which runs 35 dinner did the same last year, after he spots, including seven in Seat- had levied a wage surcharge at tle such as Henry’s Tavern and John Howie Steak. One day he Stanford’s. was playing golf and saw a $3 Wait a minute, says I, paging “water fee” appended to his bill. through old photos on my phone. You have to pay extra to water DANNY That rings a bell. the grass? WESTNEAT I had occasion to eat once at “Oh, it’s kind of like what the Stanford’s outside North- you’re doing” with the wage sur- charge, his wife told gate Mall. It’s him. described as a I’d SAy SEATTlE’S He canceled the “polished casual surcharges gastropub.” EXPERIENCE SO FAR menu prices, and he raised later According to my SHOWS IT’S A NET wrote on his blog, bill, which I took because he was con- a photo of because POSITIVE, THOuGH vinced the fees “felt it irked me at the time, I went all in NOT uNIFORMly SO. like an unpleasant way to end an otherwise and had the sirloin CONGESS SHOuld lovely evening.” steak. The point is: Go Dinner was GO FOR AT lEAST ahead and charge Seat- fine — until tleites for our expen- that bill arrived. THE $12 lEVEl. sive progressive poli- Because tacked cies. We get it: Higher onto it was some- thing called a “4.9% LWgSC.” Fine wages mean higher costs. So roll it into print at the bottom explained: A “living the menu prices, but don’t make some wage surcharge has been added to off- big politically aggrieved show about it. set the cost of Seattle’s minimum wage All of this is happening in a super- heated political atmosphere, as Congress ... This is not for services provided and is talking about a vote to raise the fed- is not paid directly to the service staff of eral minimum wage to $15. our guests.” On Monday, the Congressional Bud- My reaction then was: Well who is it get Office put out a new study summa- being paid to? rizing the research on the effects of $15, My reaction now is: This is a com- pany that’s making a big political state- $12 and $10 minimum wages. It said ment that it can’t afford to pay the what Seattle already knows — that there increased wages of its workers. But are pros (higher wages, more stability that sneaky fee it charged me at the end at the bottom of the economic ladder) of the meal was supposedly to pay the and cons (higher prices, as well as some increased wages of its workers! loss of jobs and working hours in certain So one wonders now, where did my industries.) LWgSC actually go. I’d say Seattle’s experience so far Many of the Restaurants Unlimited shows it’s a net positive, though not uni- formly so. Congress should go for at joints around town levied a similar liv- ing-wage charge. The company’s bank- least the $12 level. ruptcy filing makes no mention of it, As for our restaurant bankruptcy, one though, only blaming progressive wage thing is certain: There now will be bales hikes at length for increasing “aggre- of political hay made from it in the days gate wage costs” by more than $10 mil- ahead (Fox News will be on it for sure, lion (out of the company’s $176 million and maybe we’ll even rate a Trump in revenue). tweet). So consider one other data point: “The wage hikes ... have significantly As Restaurants Unlimited was going increased our labor costs and have had bankrupt, 111 new restaurants opened in a serious impact on the economics of Seattle and surrounding areas just since the business,” the company said in a May. statement. Maybe the minimum wage drove OK, but ... how much money did them under. Or maybe they weren’t the living-wage charges bring in? They doing it right. don’t say. danny Westneat writes for the Seattle Times. I haven’t been back to Stanford’s, Con: Minimal help through minimum wages I f you’re thinking of raising the their operations, a deprivation not just federal minimum wage to $15 an to them, but to other employees and the hour, you need maximum compas- community. Another issue is that a fed- eral minimum wage of $15 might seem sion, and liberals don’t have it. Prom- appropriate for the economy of one ises of more money for lots of peo- ple can make voters ridiculously happy state or area while it would be malware if they don’t understand that more for for another. some always means less for others. So But never mind. Right now, as the liberals get elected, do their thing you might have noticed, we’ve got a and ruin lives of the poorest and bunch of Democrats running in most disadvantaged of our fel- a primary that they hope will low citizens. advance their cause of White Here’s a big issue just under- House residence. On this issue, lined in a report by the bipar- they could opt for a lower min- imum wage to help reduce the tisan Congressional Budget negatives, but at least 19 of the Office. It says increasing the candidates like $15. An argu- current $7.25 minimum wage by JAY ment is that the current min- that much could fatten the wal- AMBROSE imum wage has been squat- lets of 17 million workers. That ting in a corner for years while sounds great except that, maybe wages in general for 1.3 million oth- ers, it could bring have been stag- TO HElP FIX nant. Some would their pay checks to you know it’s zero. They could EVERyTHING GONE have all because of the lose their jobs, CRAZIly AMISS, greedy rich exploit- knock on doors and ing workers with probe the internet THERE WOuld BE Republican aid. for maybe weeks Nope. A Repub- and months and THEIR MINIMuM lican named Presi- then possibly retire WAGE HIKES ANd, dent Donald Trump to watching TV and has raised wages, sighing a lot. SOON ENOuGH, with unemploy- Such calcula- tions are, of course, THE PuBlIC WOuld ment rates reach- ing historic lows just educated REAlIZE THEy ARE even as cheers of guesses that other halleluiah fail to guesses of higher or ON THE TITANIC reach Democratic less erudition may ears. Trump’s tool dispute. The Heri- EVEN AS AN tage Foundation, for was not govern- OPPORTuNISTIC mental impositions instance, says that a making businesses wage boost to $15 CAPTAIN KEEPS seek a place to would affect a third SAyING dON’T hide, but deregula- of those earning tion and tax reform. wages and salaries WORRy. The economic sys- and could put a dev- tem was free at last, astating 7 million or headed that way, and corporations of them on the streets. The chief bene- ficiaries would be suburban teens and, expanded and created jobs. some economists say, entrepreneurs Oh no, it didn’t happen, say the would be made more timid. Democrats who lately have been giv- ing socialism a hug and want to raise The point is that businesses would taxes on all those corporations, thereby have to come up with the extra money undoing what Trump accomplished. one way or the other, an obvious means Their other plan is to spend like crazy. being to lay people off, usually the less And look, one of Trump’s major weak- skilled sometimes replaceable by tech- nesses has been ignoring the debt, but nology. The fired then don’t get the these people could rush us to a crisis in experience leading to better jobs in the a minute. To help fix everything gone future and won’t wish liberals a place crazily amiss, there would be their min- in heaven. imum wage hikes and, soon enough, Businesses may also raise prices, the public would realize they are on the thereby reducing purchasing power Titanic even as an opportunistic captain for people who often can’t afford the keeps saying don’t worry. squeeze. The owners could also sub- stitute part-time jobs for full-time jobs Jay Ambrose is an op-ed columnist or, if nothing worked well, close down for Tribune News Service.
