California Minimum Wage Fail: $15 Wage Means $30 Pizzas!

by Warner Todd Huston | August 18, 2015 10:21 am

As more and more towns in the Golden States pass local laws demanding businesses pay a $15 per hour minimum wage, small businesses are starting to feel the pinch. Businesses are dying out and losing sales in heaps.

As Breitbart reported[1], one such pizza shop decided to raise its wage but because of that also had to raise prices. Consequently, the restaurant has lost 25% of its business.

Even though businesses with less than 56 workers are exempt from the $14.44 rate and do not have to raise their wages to $15 until 2018, Vic Gumper, who owns Lanesplitter Pizza, with outlets in Berkeley, Oakland, Albany and Emeryville, decided not only to bite the bullet but swallow it, paying his workers $15 to $25 an hour while eschewing tips or raising prices.

He advertised his $30 pizzas and other food items as “sustainably served, really … no tips necessary,” according to the Los Angeles Times.

Sales at Gumper’s locations have plunged 25% in the last few months; some of the locations now force workers to skip their lunch hours.

Gumper admitted, “The necessity of paying people a living wage in the Bay Area is clear, so it’s hard to argue against it, and it’s something I’m really proud to be able to try doing. At the same time, I’m terrified of going out of business after 18 years.”

Business all across the sate are having similar problems. This wage hike tread is killing small businesses everywhere it’s tried.