Favorite Sacramento Restaurants Closing after Forced Minimum Wage Hike

The lack of understanding of basic economics (or a lack of care about the human lives impacted by their policies) plagues liberals wherever they govern.  California once again serves as the baseline case in point. 

Several Sacramento restaurants will be shutting their doors after the new year.  Their owners say they will not be able to run a viable business once the forced minimum wage hike goes into effect.

Here’s what is happening.

California businesses that employ 26 workers or more will have to start paying their employees $13 per hour beginning January 1, 2020. Businesses with fewer workers will have to increase their pay to $12 per hour. By 2023, minimum wage will be $15 an hour.

The Blaze reports some restaurants are going ahead and announcing that they’re going to close their doors once this new policy goes into effect:

“California is a rough state to do small business,” Paul Fraga told the outlet. “They want everybody to make $20 an hour, but for the smaller guy, I can’t afford that.”

Fraga owned Perry’s restaurant along Highway 99, a place that — until Sunday — served diners for 30 years. One customer who showed up for her last meal at Perry’s told KMAX, “It’s really sad just thinking about this. It’s an institution. This is a Sacramento institution.”

Another Sacramento station, KXTV-TV, reported last month that the “iconic” Fat City Bar in Sacramento’s historic downtown decided to shut down after 43 years. Owner Jerry Fat told the station it was purely a business decision.

“We’ve had a great ride,” he told KXTV. “But due to the steady decline in Old Sacramento business, coupled with rising costs and increased competition for those shrinking dollars, we made the decision to close.”

Phil Courey owns a Greek restaurant called Opa! Opa! that has operated in Sacramento for 14 years. He told KTXL-TV in November that he would close up shop in mid-December, and wasn’t shy about the fact that the minimum wage hikes were the reason he was throwing in the towel.

“Most of our margins have been consumed by the minimum wage pressures,” Courey said.

But the community begged him to stay open for a little longer, and he agreed, saying he wanted to “take this through the holidays for my staff.”

Opa! Opa! will close Dec. 29. for the last time. Courey told KMAX, “We close our doors one-by-one. Perry’s after 50 years, today Fat City and others…you’ll see a few more closing just after the first of the year.”

This new California policy has a real and painful economic impact on those who lose their business…. and those who lose their jobs.  Entry level food service jobs often allow servers to make decent money due to the customary – and voluntary — tips of customers.  

But leftists don’t care, or don’t understand what they are doing by imposing a non-market “minimum wage.”  

The actual minimum wage is always zero, which is what you earn when your job is eliminated due to idiots in government who don’t care about the human beings impacted by their utopian policies.

Image Credit: Pixabay

Hat Tip: The Blaze