When I worked in the restaurant biz in the 80's, our franchise owner hated bumps in the minimum wage. If minimum wage went up 10%, (like to $3.35/hour) he'd ins

When I worked in the restaurant biz in the 80's, our franchise owner hated bumps in the minimum wage. If minimum wage went up 10%, (like to $3.35/hour) he'd instruct his managers to cut the amount of hours by 10%. The restaurants would just have to deal with fewer employees. We were all smart enough to see that this would have adverse affects on QSC (Quality, Service, Cleanliness), but he didn't care. He just wanted his costs relatively fixed. It also didn't help our argument that sales were continually rising, so he was shielded from the effects of his labor cuts. The only thing that made him voluntarily raise his wages was when In N Out opened a location 20 minutes away. The immediate drop in sales at his flagship restaurant forced him to compete for labor (In N Out was starting employees at 2x minimum wage IIRC).