Quote Originally Posted by Bham1982 View Post
Restaurants in NYC and SF now have $15 minimum wage. Those are the premiere restaurant cities in North America. NYC is probably the dining capitol of the planet.

You really, honestly think that people are all going to New Jersey and Oakland to eat out? LOL. We're talking like an extra dollar or two on your bill.

And do you actually know any long-term restaurateurs? I do. They're wealthy. If you own a successful restaurant you can live anywhere in Metro Detroit. If you own a couple you're likely rich. Many pay dishwashers and the like off-the-books, well below minimum wage. I wouldn't be crying for the owners.
The margins for most restaurants are very, very tight. So when you mandate a rise in wages, this happens, inevitably:

http://sfist.com/2017/01/24/at_least...aurants_ha.php

The people who used to work at those restaurants are not pleased with the results of the latest experiment in wage controls. I would humbly suggest that if wage growth is the goal, then perhaps a government mandate isn't the best way to get there.

The other idea that seems to make no sense at all is why minimum wage would not vary across region and city. San Francisco is a very expensive place to live. This article calculates the cost of living at 62% above the national average.

http://www.businessinsider.com/how-e...7-difference-6

Math tells me that $15 in SF would then be $9.25 in an average city.

According to bankrate, which is oddly what the US government site directs you to, if someone makes $150,000 in San Francisco, the equivalent income in Detroit is $81,037. Apples to apples, then, would put that $15/hr wage in SF at $8.31/hr, less than our state minimum wage of $8.90/hr. One would think the difference might be even more stark when you include just Detroit rather than the whole metro area.