By Kent Hoover, Washington Bureau Chief
American Business Journals, March 6, 2013, syndicated
Andy Shallal broke away from the lunchtime crowds at his Busboys and Poets restaurants to go to Capitol Hill and urge Congress to raise the minimum wage.
Why would Shallal, who runs five restaurants in the Washington, D.C., area, want to increase labor costs? Well, for starters, raising the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour wouldn't raise Shallal's labor costs -- he already pays his employees at least $10.25 an hour. A decent wage is part of his business model.
"I am living proof that you can do this and still be successful," Shallal said.
Shallal isn't alone -- "restaurants are opening en masse" in Washington, he notes, despite the fact that the city's minimum wage is $8.25 an hour, $1 higher than the national minimum wage.
Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, liked what he heard from Shallal at a press conference hosted by the senator.
"We need more Andy Shallals," Harkin said.
"There are more," Shallal responded.
Harkin introduced legislation today to raise the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour in 95-cent increments over the next three years. The minimum wage would then get automatic adjustments for inflation. Harkin's bill, which also raises the minimum wage for tipped workers, comes on the heels of President Barack Obama's State of the Union call for increasing the minimum wage. ...
"The minimum wage has become a poverty wage," Harkin said. "This shouldn't happen in the richest nation on Earth."
As Harkin spoke, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was hitting record highs on Wall Street.
Harkin contends raising the minimum wage would be good for the economy, because "workers would have more money to spend ... in their communities, giving a boost to Main Street and generating new jobs."
But there are also restaurateurs, and other business owners, who contend they won't be able to hire as many entry-level employees if the minimum wage is raised as high as Harkin proposes.
The timing of this increase "could be extraordinarily detrimental" given that restaurant owners also will be coping with the new demands imposed by health care reform, said Scott DeFife, executive vice president of policy and government affairs for the National Restaurant Association.
Shallal isn't surprised this trade group -- "the other NRA," in his words -- is opposing Harkin's bill to raise the minimum wage.
"Don't listen to them -- they've lied before, and they'll lie again," Shallal said.
Obviously, Shallal is not a member of the National Restaurant Association. He claims the association represents big businesses, not independent restaurateurs like himself. ...
Shallal, however, contends the association promotes a business model based on cheap labor. He said restaurateurs can follow a "different paradigm" of a living wage and good working conditions. He's a member of the Restaurant Opportunities Center, which promotes what it calls "the high road to profitability." ...
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