Ugh. So, Hitchcock. I went there recently and had a lovely meal by myself which cost me $70 including tax and tip. It was not an extravagant meal, salad and pasta, but it did include wine and dessert.

Hitchcock isn't in Seattle. It's on Bainbridge Island. He doesn't have to change a thing. I've heard he's opening a new restaurant, but nothing has to change at the existing restaurant.

Also, I don't know how many times I've read hand wringing from restaurateurs who already claim to pay their employees near $15 an hour. If you already pay the minimum wage you don't actually need to pay more. Is this not clear?

Gosh, yes. Let the small business owners speak! It's an outrage that Socialists Frank Blethen and Tim Keck haven't been willing to let the owners say one word. Censorship!

We should halt this right now and let the 100,000 poorest workers in Seattle bear the brunt of this economy's hardship, lest any boutique owners feel any pain.

OR! STFU and raise your prices. End of discussion. HAND.

Stealing tips that customers give restaurant workers to pad the yacht fees for the owner is NOT the way to get repeat customers.

But it is the way to get boycotts.

It's pretty obvious that these businesses are not going to simply pay more from existing revenue.

It's also obvious that this is not about giving poor people more money -- it's about extracting more money from the middle class.

Prices will have to rise. People who are middle class will have to pay more for bread and lattes. The government will get increased revenue as a percent of sales.

Everyone wins -- well, except for the middle class whose salaries are already stretched to the breaking point by rents and housing costs.

And those poor people whose hourly will rise -- that will all go to the landlords, who will instantly raise the price of poor people's apartments. Putting future pressure on the middle class.

Without corresponding increases in wages in middle class jobs $15/hr is a tax on the middle class.

The rest of us will start getting all of our meals from Popeye's Chicken in Renton while the douchebags enjoy their $15 cocktails, up from $14 before the change.

The ability of minimum-wage earners to buy the things they need, from rent to food to clothing, will be unchanged.

Of course, that was going to be true anyways.

Sounds like a great time for these fancy restos to go service compris.

@1: I believe the idea is that if you now have to pay your dishwasher $15/hour, then you also need to bump up what you pay your waitstaff and bartenders. Front of the house being more valuable than back of the house.

@7 That would be true if waitstaff and bartenders didn't get tips. In many states where the minimum wage for tipped workers is lower the waitstaff actually earns much less per hour than the dishwasher, but they get tips.

The idea restaurants will have to pay waitstaff more relies on the assumption people will stop tipping when their $55 bill goes up to $60. Tips could dip a bit, but the percentage will be calculated on a higher tab so they could just go up. While I'd love to see tips disappear it isn't actually going to happen.

"Their perspective is important, they have a lot to lose, and they deserve to be heard."

We've definitely heard quote a bit of their perspective on Slog.

How'd it work that Eater, known more for 'Best of' lists and hard hitting exposed on where to find rosé was able to scoop The Stranger's crack staff with a story like this?

There'r literally DOZENS of small businesses with this same refrain, and all it took to get it out of them was someone to care to ask. Thank you for posting this Christopher. Anna & Dominic will hear it from their $15Now overlords, for sure.

I always thought having a business (or building a decent business) was worth something.

Some of these business owners whine and say things like "at the end of the day I'm only making $15/hour myself!". But don't they own a business that is (or eventually should be) worth something?

It's kinda like some renter complaining they pay $1000/month for rent and then some guy paying off a mortgage complains that he's paying $1200/month.

@8: I see. I thought it was customary for the front of the house to tip out the bussers and such at the end of the night. This may be an urban legend, I've never worked in the industry. So the idea then is for restaurant owners to tell their waitstaff "I am paying you the same as the dishwashers, but you get tips, so don't worry about it"?

@10 Oh, God. We've heard from you assholes already around here already.

You're still full of shit, Liberty Bar. Didn't you have a full on article in the actual printed paper?

How do you feel about rent control?

But the business owners you really need to hear from are the small immigrant business owners, NONE OF WHOM are the 1%. What about the Vietnamese grandmother with a little pho' shop barely making ends meet as it is who works six days a week herself? Is she the "evil corporate boss?"
Yes, people should make more money a lot of the time, but you can only get so much out of a business, especially a small one. 15Now has done a fine job or being anti-immigrant, because most of those businesses that are going to close are immigrant owned. People may pay $18 for a martini, but who the hell is gonna pay $20 for a small bowl of pho'?

@3
I would be 100% in favor of a special task for by the government to deal with tip and wage theft, as would most libertarians and even probably a lot of conservatives. But there is no evidence that these particular businesses are involved in that.
And I doubt many of the small immigrant businesses, owned by people who work there six days a week themselves, have "yacht fees".

@12
In general a portion of the tips are split and "tipped out" to the busser, food runner, host/hostess, food runner and maybe bartender. So a server may make a $100 in tips, and she'll have a formula on how much to tip out which is generally about 20%, so they keep the $80, the $20 is put in with all the other server tip outs and then divided based on another formula between the busser, runner, etc collectively referred to as "support staff".
Because most tips are done by credit card, it is all tracked and it is VERY hard to steal tips, but it does happen sometime. But it ends up with most workers, including bussers, making over $12/hour at the least in Seattle
It isn't theft to make sure everyone that helped the server get the tips get their fair share...one would think a socialist would be okay with that.

@2
How about when the poorest workers in Seattle lose their jobs, would they be better making 0/hour then they were making 9.32/hour?
And before you say "there is no evidence of that ever happening":
http://www.militarytimes.com/article/201…
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014…
http://econweb.tamu.edu/jmeer/Meer_West_…
http://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/labeco/v18y…
And my personal favorite:" In February, the Seattle Times reported that already at the Clarion Hotel off International Boulevard, a sit-down restaurant has been shuttered, though it might soon be replaced by a less-labor-intensive cafe." Source:

http://news.investors.com/ibd-editorials…

Well I know I'm gonna lose my job because of this. I'm just happy I never put down major roots when I moved here from upstate New York and I can leave after I save up some seed money and my lease is up. When this place becomes harder and harder to find a nice dinner at and the restaurant industry goes south, I'll be in Charlotte, Dallas, Houston or Richmond laughing at your asses.

If a business owner is paying his workers a sub living wage, the business owner's customers and the general public are subsidizing the business owner's "profits."

Those section 8 rent vouchers? Nothing but subsidies to landlords to prop up rents beyond the level that the "real" market could not sustain based on tenants' income without the vouchers? Food stamps? Subsidy to the already subsidized agri biz. If no one is buying, the price will drop

@19
The old tired "living wage" fallacy again. What is a "living wage"? There is no such thing. What may be enough for a college student living in a dorm to live off of is not going to be enough for a mom with three kids.
If you say it is the amount that it takes for a single person to survive in Seattle, two organizations give numbers WAY lower than 15/hour:
The MIT living wage calculator puts it at 9.62/hour:
http://livingwage.mit.edu/places/5303363…
King County did a study that showed people need 10.62 to be self sufficient in Seattle (page 8): http://www.selfsufficiencystandard.org/d…

So why not say 11/hour, because that is MUCH closer to the reality of what a "living wage" is. But not everyone even needs 11/hour, like students and such.

The 15 number was pulled out of someone's ass.
And is someone who is happy to make $11/hour and that's all they need to live, who are you, Sawant or the 15Now gestapo to tell them they're better off without a job all then not making what we say they should make.

@20 The MIT living wage says that rent for 1 adult would be $770 (HAH!).

The King County study said $10.62 back in 2011.

Both of those are if you didn't have a child. If you did have a child, you'd need $22.67/hr.

The King County study also said that if you were 2 adults with 2 kids, and both adults were working full time, EACH ADULT would have to make $14.58 while working full time.

I guess you could make the argument that poor people earning minimum wage shouldn't have kids.

Is that the argument you want to make?

Your readers would likely be more willing to listen to what small business owners have to say if the first bunch you let write editorials were not admittedly and brazenly lying about the numbers/"evidence" they were furnishing.

Brendan McGill's little math story problem is bullshit. He conflates a busy lunch rush with a full day of labor costs. If these restaurant owners can't be honest with their math, then why do they "deserve to be heard"?

Is there a rule that these wages are for Seattleites only? City dwellers will have to compete for jobs that will be bringing more people in from outlying areas. Yes, the local server at your local donut shop will now be displaced. Their income will go to Zero. So, how does this translate to helping Seattleites survive in our expensive city?

@24

That's one of the reasons analysts and pundits are calling it an experiment. If it works out, Seattle can export it nationwide. If it crashes and burns... well I haven't actually heard any proposed solution for that eventuality.

@Doug
"He conflates a busy lunch rush with a full day of labor costs."

Tell me how many cooks does it take to handle a 150 cover lunch? Do they arrive with the first customer of the day, and walk right in to their first ticket? How long IS said lunch rush? Where does the food magically come from?

How many servers do you need for this level of business? Granted, some CAN practically arrive with the first customer, but not all. How many Doug?

McGill doesn't even mention the fact that his cooks will most likely be making MORE than $15/hr, since they are prob already making around $15 now (hehe).

@Gorath
"if the first bunch you let write editorials were not admittedly and brazenly lying about the numbers"

First bunch who? Friedman? Who else? Bunch? Not to mention, the whole Liberty thing continues to be grossly mis-characterized. He estimated some numbers similar to what I just said about McGill. People that are currently cooks are most likely making near 15now (hehe). They get raises dude!

You do not hear/listen because you are BIASED. You do not care about anything but your ideology. You will always find a way to disregard/nullify opposing points, because you never intend to ever take them to heart.

@21
So every job has to pay enough for someone to raise a family on? So that means I have to have a harder time finding a job because the only jobs that are allowed to exist are ones that pay enough to raise a family on, despite the fact that I don't want kids?
And actually, yes, I do believe people should have their financial houses in order before having kids, as crazy as that sounds (insert sarcasm) People should have a career, a stable lifestyle, and everything should be in order before they have kids. If you work the drive-thru at McDonald's then yes, as crazy as it may sound, I think one should wait until they have a better job before starting a family.

The fact that I ACTUALLY HAVE TO SAY THAT shows just how far into dumbass land this argument has taken us. The sooner I get out of this city the better. Charlotte, here I come!

@26
AMEN!

And actually plenty of small business owners came public with their numbers, and the 15Now fascists ignored them.
Look at this Stranger article that shows the testimony of a Vietnamese restaurant owner talking about her immigrant mom who works seven days a week and barely has anything. That part of the video starts at 75 minutes in.

http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archive…

Honestly, Gorath would refuse to watch this and honestly say the obvious: THESE BUSINESS OWNERS ARE NOT THE 1%! They hardly have anything either, especially the immigrant business owners.

I used to be a crazy socialist too, but I got tired of checking my critical thinking in at the door every time a hard question came up, unlike the likes of Gorath.

@26: Good questions. Ask McGill.

Restaurant owners talk as though they "don't know" how the increase will affect their businesses. They can't figure out by now how much they'll have to increase prices, and give us some hard numbers? Seriously?

Until they do, it all sounds like a bunch of whining.

@27 Go. Now. If you were so smart you'd have been planning for this for months.

Whatever happened to Mountain View?