No, they're not. The judge blocked the effort to raise minimum wages, IIRC. The OP is basically correct that restaurant owners don't want to raise pay rates to

No, they're not. The judge blocked the effort to raise minimum wages, IIRC. The OP is basically correct that restaurant owners don't want to raise pay rates to a level that meets a "living wage" standard. They don't want to raise what they charge customers to the point where they could pay those rates, of course--but I'm not sure there's particularly good data to support the assumption that their customers would balk at doing so. These are restaurants with wait staff in high-cost cities, and raising the average ticket price per diner by $2 or $3 may not be enough to dissuade very many diners from choosing that restaurant. (I mean, I'm sure there's somebody out there who'd look at a menu and say, "I'd pay $28 for that flat iron steak, but $30? No deal!", but it seems like it'd be uncommon.)