General Discussion

Labor costs are 32% = $768,000
Food costs = 32%
Fixed/variable costs = 30%
Net Income = $144,000

Your average cost for wage earners is $17.50 per hour.

If you raise wages to $35/hr, you double your labor costs, adding an additional $768,000 to the cost of labor, providing you an annual loss of $624,000. What's next for you, the owner? Raise prices by 32%? If you don't raise prices your income will go down, or do you expect an increase in prices will increase your customer base? Usually not.

Of course, foods costs would increase dramatically as well, along with some of the variable costs.

Or you could raise prices a bit less, to a point, assuming no loss in business, you would break even. What's that, you don't want to work for free? Well then, you could just let go of 50% of your work force, that would do it! But then if you did that, THEY would either have to find a new job in a declining job market or starve.

I have no desire to see people starve, but wrecking the economy is not the way to do it.