A recurring theme around here ("How The Minimum Wage Ruined Dessert," "How Regulation Ruined Peking Duck," "Wine Store Regulations," "Ramen and Bagels" ) is that the dining section of the New York Times offers a more clear-eyed view of the costs of government regulations than does the rest of the newspaper. The latest example is a Times dispatch from San Francisco, reporting on restaurants that have gotten rid of waiters and waitresses in favor of having customers pour their own water and carry their own food to their tables:
On July 1, the minimum wage in San Francisco will hit $15 an hour, following incremental raises from $10.74 in 2014. The city also requires employers with at least 20 workers to pay health care costs beyond the mandates of the Affordable Care Act, in addition to paid sick leave and parental leave.
... partly as a result of those benefits, restaurateurs say they can't afford the workers who remain. A dishwasher can now make $18 or $19 an hour. And because of California labor laws, even tipped workers like servers earn at least the full minimum wage, unlike their peers in most other states....
If customers won't buy $20 burgers, or $25 dosas, and the staff in the kitchen can't be cut, that something is service. "And that is what we did — we got rid of our servers," Mr. Mitra said...
To economists, it makes sense. David Neumark, a professor at the University of California, Irvine, who has studied the minimum wage, recalled a trip to Norway where nearly every restaurant he and his wife visited relied on counter service."I said, 'Well, duh,' " Mr. Neumark said. "It was so clear there." Norway has among the highest median wages in the world.
