Restaurants already run on extremely thin margins. Raising waiter's pay would mean raising meal prices, as you say. That raises the cost of living for everyone

Restaurants already run on extremely thin margins. Raising waiter's pay would mean raising meal prices, as you say. That raises the cost of living for everyone who eats out. Maybe service staff shouldn't ever eat out, but what happens when the same issue hits grocery store workers, and the stores either raise food costs or shut down? It is not a viable policy to legislate raised wages, and then legislate even higher wages when the cost of living increases in turn. The money actually has to come from somewhere. Businesses will raise prices to the point the market will bear, for both the lower and upper class. This is the fundamental issue with wage hikes. $15 is not more than $10 if everything costs 1.5x more after wage increases. Deregulated markets are able to (and have in the US up to this point) create more material wealth for everyone even as wages stay stagnant in dollar value. The problem is not greedy businesses. They want workers who they can hire for wages they can afford. Due to inflated housing prices, the cost of living is too high for workers to live in the city, and thus the "living wage" is unaffordable for businesses. Why are the housing costs so high? There's a lot of evidence that zoning laws and regulated markets play a large role[0]. [0] https://www.forbes.com/sites/scottbeyer/2016/09/30/the-verdict-is-in-land-use-regulations-increase-housing-costs/#27fd0d9e4162 https://www.forbes.com/sites/scottbeyer/2016/09/30/the-verdi...