> 4% price increase to get to a living wage. Not $15 sandwiches, just $7.28 instead of $7. Pay your employees. It's that simple. At a large chain like Chipotle

> 4% price increase to get to a living wage. Not $15 sandwiches, just $7.28 instead of $7. Pay your employees. It's that simple. At a large chain like Chipotle, sure. But most "fine dining" restaurants have razor thin margins on food. Alcohol is how they make money. With the pandemic, people have switched to ordering food for takeout and therefore restaurants can no longer make a profit on drinks. There's also two other aspects the author won't touch on: if you open a legitimate fine dining restautant you'll have to compete with places employing illegal aliens. And lastly, some restaurants are really just fronts for money laundering. They can operate a really long time without making any real profit; it's a business where it's easy to claim some large transactions were made in cash.