> The employees might lose a crappy near-subsistence job, but both the employees and owners can then concentrate their efforts into something better... Before

> The employees might lose a crappy near-subsistence job, but both the employees and owners can then concentrate their efforts into something better... Before the hike, both the employee and owners could do that... yet they didn't. Is the existence of a lower paid job make it harder to create something better? That seems really backward, because there will always be lower paying job. > Somehow Europe manages to have viable restaurants despite decent minimum wage and not tips-oriented compensation... Where does Europe has an higher minimum wage than $15 USD? That's excluding tipping which can bring that wage MUCH higher. You can't really compare viability when the wage is actually lower....