This is What Bernie Sanders and AOC-Type Thinking is Doing To New York City

Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez 

This shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone who understands basic economics.

The $15 minimum wage is causing cutbacks in hours and layoffs for restaurant employees.

 Jennifer Gould Keil reports for The New York Post:

Big Apple restaurants are feeling the heat from minimum-wage hikes, cutting staff hours and even closing kitchens as they struggle to shoulder the extra payroll costs.

Gabriela’s Restaurant and Tequila Bar, a margarita and taco staple on the Upper West Side for the past 25 years, is closing at the end of September — and it has been a long, painful road downhill, according to its mom-and-pop owners.

Since the $15-an-hour minimum wage hit New York City in December, Liz and Nat Milner say, they’ve been forced to slash their full- and part-time staff to 45 people from 60. Quality has suffered, they admit, and customers have noticed: They’re not coming in like they used to, and when they do, they’re spending less.

“We started by having to let go of the ladies who hand-made our tortillas. It’s certainly better when you can make your tortillas fresh for every taco,” Nat Milner said. “It made sense at $8 an hour but not at $15.”

Gabriela’s was then forced to lay off “two overnight cleaners, a whole level of middle management, the general manager, the extra servers we’d keep on in case it got busy — and then we started cutting hours.”...

Philippe Massoud, CEO and executive chef of the Manhattan-based Lebanese eateries Ilili and Ilili Box, says rising wages have forced him to cut hours for his 180 employees, yank labor-intensive dishes from the menu and cut back on staff-education events like wine seminars.

That’s because new regulations require that employees who receive tips can no longer spend more than 20 percent of their time on work that doesn’t involve interacting with customers..

Meanwhile, Bernie Sanders and AOC talk as though they ignore reality.

Sen. Bernie Sanders speaks at Dartmouth: "I came here to New Hampshire 4 years ago. I talked about raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour, and everybody told me I was crazy, too radical an idea. Well the American people, workers, have stood up." pic.twitter.com/Wlfyabc2gk

— The Hill (@thehill) September 30, 2019

"All labor has dignity," @AOC says. "We have to raise the national minimum wage to $15 an hour" pic.twitter.com/1lKIDJCOn4

— Bloomberg TicToc (@tictoc) May 31, 2019

Here's my discussion of the minimum wage:



-RW


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