By a vote of 44-to-5, Chicago’s City Council has agreed to raise the minimum wage to $13 an hour by 2019. AH&LA, in partnership with the National Restaurant Association, released a new study that shows that a $13 minimum wage would eliminate more than 11,600 jobs in Chicago. Statewide, that jumps to more than 80,000 lost jobs at a cost of $547 million annually to taxpayers. According to the study, while many industries would be impacted negatively if the wage were increased to $13-an-hour statewide, three sectors would be hit the hardest: retail trade; arts, entertainment, recreation, accommodations, and food services; and manufacturing. Read more over at AH&LA.
Based on recent historical trends, an increase in minimum wage will not result in job losses, not even for hotel or restaurant industries. San Francisco, Oakland, Washington D.C. Albuquerque, San Jose have all had recent minimum wage increases and all cities saw the unemployment rate decrease. Seattle is the only city to recently hike its minimum wage and see a increase in unemployment, however, this had almost no impact or the hospitality industry. In the other cities mentioned, employment levels in the hospitality industry either stayed the same or increased following a raise in minimum wage. All of this is based on employment trends from BLS data. If AH&LA really cared about the workers in the hotel industry they would support an increase in minimum wage. Instead, it appears as though AH&LA only cares about the profits of hotel owners and only feigns support for the common worker.