There’s little comfort in “I told you so,” concerning New York’s $15 minimum wage, directly responsible for the increased layoffs, fewer hours and slow growth.

The highly predictable slow down after 6-months of enforcing the cities $15 minimum wage has resulted in retail stores, restaurants, and other small businesses struggling to employ their full-time workers, opting instead to cut hours, and perhaps move their establishments out of New York City.

The Wall Street Journal followed several businesses since the start of the minimum wage controversy to see how the wage increase has affected their overall operation.

Susannah Koteen, owner of the Lido Restaurant in Harlem told the paper. “What it really forces you to do is make sure that nobody works more than 40 hours.” Adding, “You can only cut back so many people before the service starts to suffer.”

Koteen had planned to open another restaurant, in a different section of the city before the mandated minimum wage increase. However, because of the increase, she’ll no longer take the risk because it would be economically foolish attempting another restaurant with a part-time staff.

“You would just have no choice but to cut people at the bottom,” Koteen added.

Sarah McNally owns four bookstores in NYC. She hasn’t been forced to fire anybody yet nor cut back hours; however, she isn’t planning on hiring as many people at her two newest stores that she’s opening.

“With raising minimum wage to living wage, it feels now like we’re at the bottom of the pay spectrum,” McNally said. “There’s absolutely no benefit to being a retail business in New York.”

Likewise, Andrew Rigie of the New York City Hospitality Alliance laments that the only way for businesses to stay solvent is either by cutting the hours of their employees or passing the increased cost to the customer.

Moreover the economic risks for many restaurants working on tight profit margins, many times findings themselves in the crosshairs of multiple issues, from increased rents, overly regulated city inspections, rising vendor costs, perishable inventory to weather-related issues, all of which affect profit margins.

Regie continued, “Many people working in the restaurant industry wanted to work overtime hours, but due to the increase, many restaurants have cut back or totally eliminated any overtime work. “There’s only so much consumers are willing to pay for a burger or a bowl of pasta.”

Bloomberg News reports that Restaurants Unlimited, Inc. “which operates 35 restaurants ranging from fine dining to “polished casual” eateries, including Henry’s Tavern, Stanford and Kincaid’s have all filed for Chapter 11 Protection in Delaware.

Chief Restructuring Officer David Bagley directly blamed “progressive wage laws” for the move.

“Over the past three years, the company’s profitability has been significantly impacted by progressive wage laws along the Pacific coast that have increased the minimum wage,” Bagley said. “As a large employer in the Seattle metro market, for instance, the company was one of the first in the market to be forced to institute wage hikes.”

The culprit, of course, is local government bureaucrats attempting to infuse their brand of government overreach by mandating wages that are strictly governed by the marketplace.

For example, Restaurants Unlimited forced wage increases in cities like Seattle, San Francisco and Portland collectively raised wage expenses to over $10.6 million dollars through 2019, however revenues for the year within those cities ending in May 31^st was $176 million, down 1% from the prior year.

In short, the $15 minimum wage increase eventually drove Restaurants Unlimited into an untenable financial dilemma to cut hours, move out of those cities, or finally seek relief through the courts.

Restaurants Unlimited employs about 1,885 part-time workers and 168 full-time restaurant staff as well as 50 salaried employees at its headquarters in Seattle. Chapter 11 bankruptcy allows a business to remain in operation while it reorganizes.

“We believe this path offers the greatest potential for stability and future growth,” the company told Bloomberg.