Turns out, everything in those articles is wrong...
Ahem...
...In recent weeks there has been a rash of restaurant closings in the city, and of course, the right is very happy to blame the new minimum wage for those closures. Would it surprise you to learn that they’re not telling you the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Right-wing sites want everyone to believe that, come April 1, the minimum wage in Seattle will jump from the current level to $15 an hour. That’s not what’s happening at all. The new minimum wage will be phased in over several years. How quickly a business reaches the $15 an hour level depends on the size of the business, and whether or not the business offers employees health care benefits, as explained on
Seattle mayor Ed Murray’s web page.
The current minimum wage in Washington state is $9.32 an hour. That wage goes to $11 an hour on April 1 for businesses with more than 500 employees. For businesses such as restaurants, with fewer than 500 employees, who receive “minimum compensation,” that wage can be made up of a combination of wages, tips, and employer contributions to an employee health care plan, as long as the total of all the compensation equals at least $11 an hour.
The full $15 an hour minimum wage does not take effect for restaurants until 2019.
The right-wing sites mentioned above all latched onto a story in
Seattle Magazine, that says that the impending wage increase is one of the reasons for the restaurant closures.
However, Sara Jones, author of the story, acknowledges that not a single restaurateur she spoke to gave the wage increase as a reason for his or her restaurant being closed.
Seattle Met highlights some of the closings, and the reasons for them. Renee Erickson is closing her Boat Street Cafe so that she can concentrate on
two other restaurants, both of which she is opening this summer. Wait.
She’s closing one, and opening two, and we’re supposed to believe that the one that is closing is due to a higher minimum wage?
Little Uncle is closing their restaurant because they have decided that bigger is not necessarily better. The owners say that the larger location doesn’t fit their personal and professional goals. After closing the larger venue, Little Uncle
continues to do businessout of their original, smaller, take-out location.
Grub, an upscale restaurant highlighted in the right-wing coverage of restaurant closings, closed simply because
the owner has decided to move on. Sharon Fillingim explains on the
restaurant’s Facebook page that she believes
it is sometimes best for an entrepreneur to “leave at the top of [her] game.” She makes no mention of the minimum wage increase having any influence in her decision. In fact, contrary to what right wing sites would have you believe,
the space occupied by Grub will not be left vacant. Fillingim introduces the new restaurant, Bounty Kitchen, that will take over from Grub, and its owner, in the same Facebook post...
http://www.ifyouonlynews.com/politics/sorry-righties-seattle-restaurant-closures-are-not-due-to-15-minimum-wage/