Oakland Minimum Wage Hike: 30% Of Firms with Low Wage Workers Cut Hours

An Economic Policies Institute  survey of 223 businesses with pay levels affected by the minimum-wage hike found that 30% had cut employee work hours and 17% reduced staffing to absorb the cost increase.

EPI reports:

This survey, conducted by phone just under one month after Oakland’s
wage increase took effect, is intended to catalog a broader range of anecdotes
from affected businesses in Oakland. Over 1,300 businesses were
contacted, and 223 participated in the survey.... The results, while not representative
of the city as a whole, suggest that the costs of the law are more
significant than proponents acknowledged..

.
The survey focused specifically on those Oakland businesses that had to
increase employee wages as a result of the new minimum wage.... Most of
the businesses surveyed—about 70 percent—had 15 or fewer employees. Surveyed
businesses represented a broad range of industries, with the largest category
of respondents (~20 percent) representing restaurants or bars.
The survey didn’t ask the business owner to estimate the dollar amount of
wage increase; however, of the 223 businesses surveyed, 56 percent reported
that the new minimum wage caused a large increase in their labor costs.