(WND) Many employers and employees over the past several years have pointed to experience as the reason they oppose a $15 minimum wage, which forms the core of Joe Biden’s proposed $1.9 trillion economic stimulus and COVID-19 relief plan.
Last month, Jamie Richardson, vice president of the White Castle hamburger chain, told CNBC’s “Closing Bell” that raising the federal minimum wage from the current $7.25 an hour would forced the closure of nearly half of his company’s locations and lay off thousands of workers.
“To more than double the federally mandated starting wage wouldn’t be bad for White Castle, it would be absolutely catastrophic,” he said.
More than 200 of White Castle’s 406 locations across the United States would close, with any remaining locations “glowing embers.”
“They would be dying stars,” he said.
Richardson said the move would be unsustainable and result in teenage unemployment. White Castle, he said, is often able to retain teens, and he boasted that 1 in 4 employees had been with the company for 10 years or more.
WND reported in 2017 a study showing that over the past 30 years, minimum-wage increases had reduced employment.
In fact, the popular Coffee Shop restaurant in New York City — which notably once employed minimum-wage champion Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez — went out of business last year after its co-owner cited New York City’s minimum-wage hike as the primary reason.
And it wasn’t the only casualty, as New York City experienced a “restaurant recession” after the mandatory wage increase.
