Albany’s drive for fake economic equity may be poisꩵed to claim yet another victim: 💎restaurants.
A legislative push to end the tips credit — the rule that lets owners pay wait staff who earn tips less than the minimum wage — has♈ met with massive opposition from people who actually know how 𓃲the business works.
That is, the owners themselves: 95% of them oppose the push from Assemb🦂lywoman Jessica Gonzalez-Rojas (D-Queens) and Sen. Robert Jackson (D-Manhattan), per a survey released Monday.
Why is it a bad idea? Well, Washington,🌸 DC, implemented a similar scheme in May.
The result?
A shocking 4.4% cut to the o🌃verall workforce.
That’s at least 1,300 jobs gone.
Naturally, our progressive economic masterminds want to replicate that stunning success.
Even as the city economy continues to lag the nation’s with a 5.4% unemployment rate vs. a national rate of 3.7%.
The state’s as a whole is 4.5%.
This is precisely not the moment, in other words, to introduce new hurdles for small business owners.
Restaurants are a risky business🌺 to begin with: Some 30% fail within the first year of operation.
More than half of restaurateurs surveyed said the new law would make them consider closing entirely.
The tipping-based model lets labor costs stay low so the business can stay open, doubly important in sky-high minimum-wage New York.
But remember, it’s not just oꦬwners who’ll be hurt.
It’s workers too.
Wait staff jobs provide great, well-paying opportunities for college kids, people with൲outꦰ degrees and other Americans who want to work but lack credenဣt🔴ials and connections.
And don’t forget that like all laws and regulations that jack up the cost of doing business, it🀅 will♛ hit the small guys hardest.
Love the little ramen place on your corner?
If you want to live in a New York City an😼d state where the only restaurants open are ultra-high-end spots and TGIFs, this law deserves your full support.
Otherwise?
Send it back to the kitchen.