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Tuesday, August 06, 2019

NYC Businesses Struggle to Keep Up After Minimum Wage Increase

More than six months after the $15 minimum wage went into effect in New York City, business leaders and owners say the increased labor costs have forced them to cut staff, eliminate work shifts and raise prices.

Many business owners said these changes were unintended consequences of the new minimum wage, which took effect at the beginning of the year.

Susannah Koteen, owner of Lido Restaurant in Harlem, said she worries about the impact raising wages could have on her restaurant, where she employs nearly 40 people. She hasn’t had to lay off anyone, but the increase has forced her to cut back on shifts and be more stringent about overtime. She said she changes her menu offerings seasonally and raises prices more often since the wage boost.

“What it really forces you to do is make sure that nobody works more than 40 hours,” Ms. Koteen said. “You can only cut back so many people before the service starts to suffer.”

Ms. Koteen said she shelved plans to move her restaurant to a larger location.

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7 comments:

TheRealRay said...

"unintended consequences of the new minimum wage"...In the infamous words of Homer Simpson...D'oh !!!

Anonymous said...

Keep voting the same and you'll lose your business.

Anonymous said...


Unintended, for sure. But, more to the point, totally foreseeable and articulated before the mandated increase was passed. But socialist morons gotta socialist moron so they rammed it through.

Behind the scenes, employers also have to pay for a variety of taxes and levies tied to earnings of employees = more free revenue for various levels of government. Employees will find themselves in higher brackets also.

Great and good employees are always at a premium and can get paid what they're worth; sometimes that means changing employers.

Anonymous said...

Who didn’t see this coming

Anonymous said...

Maryland is next.

Anonymous said...

Now the lib fools can go on welfare.

Anonymous said...

Now the lib fools can go on welfare.