What a $15 Minimum Wage Would Mean for the Restaurant Industry

It’s been a decade since the last federal minimum wage increase, and there won’t be another one any time soon.

In August, the Senate declined to consider the Raise the Wage Act, passed by the House of Representatives in late July, which proposed raising the federal minimum wage from $7.25 per hour to $15 per hour over a seven-year span.

While the legislation is all but dead, the fact that one half of Congress voted in favor shows that a higher minimum wage is on the minds of many politicians and their constituents. While it’s on hold for now, it could be revived in 2020, should the partisan balance shift.

In theory, hourly workers are due for a raise. The value of $7.25 per hour has declined by 16% in real value terms over the last decade due to inflation and a rising cost of living. But not all industries could transition seamlessly into a new minimum wage requirement — especially the restaurant industry and its notoriously slim profit margins. 

The Push to Raise the…