Home
/
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
/
5 victims of the $15 minimum wage
5 victims of the $15 minimum wage
Apr 6, 2025 6:56 PM

As protests for a $15-per-hour minimum wage continue to rage across the country, cities like Seattle and states like California and New York have already begun to adopt such schemes.

But alas, prices are not play things, and such measures are bound to reap a range of deleterious effects, from raised consumer prices to increased unemployment to reduced working hours to outright business closures. Contrary to the popular narrative, those consequences tend to hit small businesses and less-skilled workers first and hardest.

With the recent laws, the destructionhas already begun. To illustrate the damage thus far, the Employment Policies Institute (EPI) is cataloging hundreds of stories on its Faces of $15 website, including a range of videos highlighting the frustrations and responses of business owners, employees, and faithful customers alike.

In the following 5 case studies, we see but a glimpse of the minimum wage’s cramping effect on human enterprise, creative service, and economic diversity.

1. Abbot’s Cellar

For Abbot’s Cellar, a newly founded restaurant in San Francisco, the recent wage hike made their start-up model unfeasible, even despite tremendous initial success. “How are businesses that have practically no margins as is – mom and pops, small businesses – how are they supposed to just absorb that?” asks Nat Cutler, one of the owners.

“San Francisco is a city that seems like it’s supposed to be built on a Bohemian, small-business, mom-and-pop-type vibe,” he continues. “That’s the culture of the city. I worry that the type of change that’s happening is going to take away from the great culture that was here…I wish a little more thought would be put into the long-term impact.”

2. Del Rio Diner

“Running a diner is not easy,” says Larry, owner of Del Rio Diner in Brooklyn, NY. “Everyone thinks it is, but it’s not.” The neighborhood diner has a 40-year history in munity with a strong and loyal customer base, but amid mounting food costs and a tough economic environment, New York’s mandatory wage increase was “the straw that broke the camel’s back,” according to Larry:

“I’m not saying they [the workers] don’t deserve it. Everybody deserves it,” Larry says. “It’s just that I can’t afford to pay it…This is a diner. It’s a neighborhood, middle-class, hardworking area. e in. They’re on fixed es. This economy, especially the city of New York, doesn’t warrant this business model anymore.”

3. Almost Perfect Bookstore

Almost Perfect Bookstore once called itself “one of the largest new and used book stores on the West Coast.” Now, thanks to the $15 minimum wage, the 25-years-old store in Sacramento is closing, with the owner shifting to an online-only presence. “The reason that this particular business…is going out of business is because I can no longer afford to pay the ever-increasing minimum wage,” says owner Kelly Uimer.

Regular employees had previously beenentitled to a share of the store’s profits. After the wage change, however, profits dried up and employees received even less than before. “As the minimum wage increased, the profits decreased and became zero,” Uimer explains. “My employees actually made more money per week at $8 per hour than $10 per hour, because I had actual money to give them.”

4. Sterling’s Family Childcare

Sterling’s Family Childcare offers childcare for children in Oakland, CA, 98 percent of e from e families. Due to the recent California law, the owner has had to lay off one longstanding employee, cut employee hours, and turn away children who required transportation.

“This wage increase has not only hurt the employees,” says Muriel Sterling, the owner. “It has hurt the families and the children.”

5. ARGYLEHaus of Apparel

Foreseeing the long-term impacts of California’s wage increases, Houman Salem decided to move his clothing business, ARGYLEHaus of Apparel, from San Fernando to Las Vegas, Nevada. “If not for the increase in minimum wage, there’d be zero interest on my part to go anywhere else,” he says. “My roots are here. My family’s here. Everybody I know in the world is right here.”

Salemis trying to manufacture pany’s clothes in America, but that task is getting harder and harder. “At a time in which the demand [for American made apparel] is at its highest that it’s probably ever been, California has put up the ‘going out of business’ sign,” Salem says. “It’s a tragedy. It’s a massive tragedy.”

Comments
Welcome to mreligion comments! Please keep conversations courteous and on-topic. To fosterproductive and respectful conversations, you may see comments from our Community Managers.
Sign up to post
Sort by
Show More Comments
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
Colson and Dostoevsky: Ideas Have Consequences
The late, great Chuck Colson had impeccable taste in literature. By that I mean that he liked all of the same books that I like. Or I suppose that I should say, I like all of the same books he liked. I especially loved the mentaries he’d do that focused on a great author. It always inspired me to hear Mr. Colson speak so eloquently and passionately about great novels that didn’t need Kirk Cameron starring in the movie version...
There’s an App for Government Transparency
If you’re interested in how your tax dollar is being spent at the local level, check out Open The Books, a project of American Transparency. It was founded by Adam Andrzejewski as a “national rallying cry for transparency in public spending.” The mission of this project is to “engage, educate and empower citizens to demandtransparent, accountable and smart government across America. If you are oneof the tens of thousands from all walks of life who believe in the sameprinciples, we...
When Bellow Met Chambers
You may have heard that Ayn Rand really disliked C.S. Lewis. But do you know what happened when Saul Bellow met Whittaker Chambers? Bellow’s biographer James Atlas provides the anecdote. The context is that Bellow has very nearly gotten a reporting job at Time magazine via Dana Tasker, an editor there. It a gig that would mean a real windfall for the struggling author: There was just one hurdle–a formality, Tasker assured him. He would have to see Whittaker Chambers,...
A Letter on Work and Worth
The following is a letter written in response to a post from my friend Brad Littlejohn on the topic of the minimum wage. Dear Brad, Thank you for your thoughtful and substantive engagement on the question of the minimum wage. I don’t think the conversation we had on Twitter earlier did justice to your work here, so I’m offering this response in hopes of furthering the conversation. I hope you find it fruitful. I certainly have. I should also note...
Now Available: ‘On Righteousness, Oaths, and Usury’ by Wolfgang Musculus
Christian’s Library Press has released a new translation of Wolfgang mentary on Psalm 15, which includes two related appendices on the topics of oaths and usury. Released at the end of 2013, On Righteousness, Oaths, and es on the 450th anniversary of Musculus’ passing. The book is part of CLP’s growing series, Sources in Early Modern Economics, Ethics, and Law. Musculus (1497–1563)was a second-generation reformer in the cities of Strasbourg, Augsburg, and Bern, and produced a variety of works, including...
University Of Dallas Receives Injunction Against HHS Mandate
While the University of Notre Dame has decided ply with the HHS mandate requiring employers to cover contraception, abortifacients and abortions in employee health insurance, the University of Dallas continues to fight the mandate. The University of Dallas, a Catholic institution founded in 1910 by the Vincentian Fathers, received a preliminary injunction on January 2, 2014, that would relieve the university of the necessity ply with the mandate. In issuing the injunction, the court exempted the university plying with the...
Virtue At GQ: The Heart of ‘Look Sharp, Live Smart’
One of the most popular blog posts at Gentlemen’s Quarterly Magazine (GQ) in 2013 was mentary giving men 10 reasons to stop viewing pornography. On GQ’s website the piece registered 24,000 thousand “like” on Facebook in just a few weeks. The popularity of the post could be a signal that Americans really are interested in discussing moral issues and perhaps GQ should take advantage of this opportunity to include more posts that offer moral direction even if some might ultimately...
‘Out of Darkness:’ U.S. Catholic Bishops Declare National Migration Week
The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) has declared January 5-11, 2014 as National Migration Week, with the theme of “Out of Darkness.” The USCCB states that this “vulnerable” population needs support, protection and prayerful ministry in order to thrive. The USCCB outlines four major groups of immigrants: migrant children, undocumented immigrants, refugees, and victims of human trafficking. Each group has very different needs; the most vulnerable, the bishops say, are migrant children. Dependent on others for food, shelter,...
Christmas Does Not Consist in an Abundance of Possessions
Reading this profile of UPS’s “Mr. Peak,” Scott Abell, is an enlightening exercise, particularly after the close of this holiday season. Mr. Peak is the guy in charge of making sure that the thing you ordered the Friday before Christmas gets there by Christmas Eve. Or as Devin Leonard puts it, “It’s e so easy for people to shop puters and smartphones that they frequently delay their purchases until the last minute. Mr. Peak’s job, in effect, is to fulfill...
What is the Most Important Factor in Improving Education?
What is the key to improving education in America? Stuart Buck says that Barker Bausell’s book, Too Simple to Fail: A Case for Educational Change, provides the answer: His main thesis: that the only thing that improves education is spending more time on instruction at a given child’s level. In his words: All school learning is explained in terms of the amount of relevant instructional time provided to a student. That’s it: more time + suitability for a child’s level....
Related Classification
Copyright 2023-2025 - www.mreligion.com All Rights Reserved