Democrats have been increasingly obsessed with raising the minimum wage in recent years. They sometimes try to slide it in with all of their “climate change” proposals, which are really just socialistic policies wrapped with a bow. But raising the minimum wage will have very real and drastic consequences for small business owners, especially restaurants.

Fox News reports:

“Bar Rescue” host Jon Taffer said Tuesday that a $15 minimum wage would be “horrifying” for the restaurant industry, responding to 2020 Democratic presidential hopefuls who have pushed for such a policy on the federal level.

“It’s horrifying. Think about it, based upon different states and the tax credit you get for tips, it’s a 50 percent or greater labor cost increase. No industry can sustain a 50 percent labor cost increase,” Taffer told “Fox & Friends” after being asked about the impact on the restaurant industry.

Taffer said that, as a result of minimum wage increases, Seattle lost nearly 1,000 restaurants and described the measure as a “shock to the [restaurant] industry economically.”

Restaurants Unlimited, a Seattle-based company that owns 35 upscale restaurants across the country, filed for bankruptcy in July and declared, “Over the last three years, the company’s profitability has been significantly impacted by progressive wage laws along the Pacific coast…the result was to increase the company’s annual wage expenses by an aggregate of $10.6 million.”

Restaurants Unlimited went on to cite three examples in which minimum wages have risen dramatically over the last three years. Portland now requires $12.50 an hour, an increase of 35 percent. San Francisco’s minimum wage has climbed 41 percent to $15.59 per hour. And Seattle, the first city with a $15 minimum wage, now forces large employers to pay at least $16 an hour.

Restaurants Unlimited did raise menu prices and even added a living wage surcharge to bills. But it still lost money.

One thousand restaurants closed in Seattle due to the raising of minimum wage. Instead of being paid more, those employees are now out of a job. To say that policy backfired is an understatement!