BACKFIRE: Minimum Wage Hike In San Francisco Is Causing Restaurants To Close

The left always wants the government to raise the minimum wage rather than letting the issue be decided by businesses and the free market.

As a result, there are always consequences that come with raising the minimum wage. While leftists congratulate themselves for raising the rate, businesses close.

That’s what’s happening in San Francisco right now.

The Washington Examiner reports:

Hike in minimum wage prompts more closings of San Francisco restaurants

San Francisco’s higher minimum wage is causing an increasing number of restaurants to go out of business even before it is fully phased in, a new study by the Harvard Business School found.

The closings were concentrated among struggling, lower-rated restaurants. The higher minimum also caused fewer new restaurants to open, it found.

“We provide suggestive evidence that higher minimum wage increases overall exit rates among restaurants, where a $1 increase in the minimum wage leads to approximately a 4 to 10 percent increase in the likelihood of exit,” report Dara Lee and Michael Luca, authors of “Survival of the Fittest: The Impact of the Minimum Wage on Firm Exit.” The study used as a case study San Francisco, which has an estimated 6,000 restaurants in the Bay Area and is ratcheting up its minimum wage. Restaurants are one of the largest employers of minimum wage workers.

The city’s minimum wage is currently $13 an hour, compared with California’s rate of $10.50 and the federal rate of $7.25. The city’s rate is set to increase to $14 in July and again to $15 next year.

Trending: CBO Estimates Biden Plan To Raise Minimum Wage To $15 Could Kill Almost 4 Million Jobs

Having a higher minimum wage doesn’t really help anyone when there are no jobs to be had.

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