Most restaurateurs oppose $15 minimum wage

A recent letter to the editor regarding the proposed $15 minimum wage (“Atwater: $15 wage is good for business,” March 28) compels me to clarify that the writer’s perspective on this issue does not reflect the broader restaurant industry’s views.

Most restaurants strongly oppose a $15 starting wage because it would be unsustainable for our industry to pay such high wages for low-skill, entry-level jobs. Moreover, such a high starting wage would force employers to also increase wages for veteran employees to maintain the pay differentials between newer and more experienced staff. This reality compounds the higher labor costs associated with such a wage mandate.

Phasing out the tip credit, as the pending legislation also proposes, would cause catastrophic effects on the full-service restaurant business model. Because tipped employees are already guaranteed to make at least full minimum wage under current law (and many make significantly more), there is absolutely no good rationale for forcing full-service restaurant employers to pay higher wages to tipped employees who, due to tipping, largely earn much more than minimum wage already.

Given the restaurant industry’s substantial labor needs, limits on the use of technology to increase production, and narrow average profit margin of only 4 percent, mandates that significantly increase the cost of labor affect our industry disproportionately. Many of our businesses are already struggling to absorb the higher labor costs of the current law’s wage increase (reaching $10.10 by July 1) on top of the new paid leave mandate.

Additional mandates that increase labor costs will severely restrict our ability to grow our businesses and continue to provide job opportunities.

Melvin R. Thompson, Columbia
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The writer is senior vice president for government affairs and public policy for the Restaurant Association of Maryland.

This Op-Ed was submitted to the Baltimore Sun on April 5, 2018.