Faces of the $15 Minimum Wage Victims

From FEE.org (Dec. 1):

As another round of coordinated minimum wage protests occurred the other day around the country, the consequences of minimum wage hikes — including lost jobs, reduced hours, and business closures — are playing out in real time. To bring some economic reality into the national discussion on the #Fightfor15, the Employment Policies Institute (EPI) released four new mini-documentaries today featuring victims of dramatic minimum wage increases. EPI has documented hundreds of these outcomes on its Faces of $15 website. Four of these stories of lost jobs and business closing are featured in the mini-documentary videos below.

1. The Almost Perfect Bookstore in Sacramento was forced to close because it could not absorb the increased costs of California’s forthcoming (far from perfect) $15 state minimum wage.
2. ARGYLEHaus of Apparel in San Fernando (CA) is leaving the state for Nevada as a consequence of California’s pending minimum wage increase to $15 an hour
3. The Del Rio Diner in Brooklyn was forced to close because the owner couldn’t pass along the costs of New York’s rising minimum wage to his blue collar customers in the form of higher menu prices
4. Sterling’s Family Childcare in Oakland (CA) has been forced to cut staff and hours as well as scale back a free rides service because of the costs associated with Oakland’s minimum wage increase

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Notice all the businesses listed are small businesses. Corporations can absorb the minimum wage—small businesses can’t. I know the Left say they want minimum wage increases so workers have a “livable” wage. But the real reason is unions want the the increase so they have an excuse to raise union dues the same rate as the workers pay raise. In the end the workers isn’t getting ahead money wise.

Here is a Walter Williams article on the subject: “Minimum Wage and Discrimination.”