$15? "That's a lot of extra Slurpees to sell," said Peter Gragnano of the Suburban Washington Franchise Owners Association. The hike could make a bad labor market for African-American youth in the County even worse, warned small business owner Stacey Brown. A 2015 survey I reported on showed that in Montgomery County, only 8.7% of black high school students surveyed are employed, and only 30.7% of black high school dropouts have been able to obtain employment.
Montgomery County's young black high school graduates are also being hard hit, with only 39.7% of those surveyed currently employed.
Attaching the minimum wage to inflation - which the bill would do beginning in 2021 - would also be a bad idea, another businessman testified. If inflation spiked as it did in the late 1970s and early 1980s, he predicted, "there won't be a way to wash a dish in a restaurant." Since the last minimum wage hike, touchscreen ordering kiosks have appeared in some County fast food restaurants, replacing cashiers.
Last night's testimony was enlightening in providing some more hard numbers on Montgomery County's floundering private sector economy. According to Maddy Voytek of the Maryland Retailers Association, Montgomery County has lost 2141 retail jobs since the turn of the century (around the same time the core members of this current Council were first elected). She said adoption of the $15 wage would "devastate our economy."
Montgomery County's restaurant sector has "slowed since 2012, and remains flat," reported Melvin Thompson of the Restaurant Association of Maryland. But things are tough all over, as County Council apologists like to tell us, right?
Wrong! Frederick County's dining sector grew by 5.4% in 2015 alone, Thompson said. How about our arch-rival Fairfax County, where Councilmember George Leventhal says he has to go to find a really good restaurant, because there aren't any in MoCo? The dining sector in Fairfax grew by 6% during that same year.
As wages go up, one person familiar with industry statistics testified, Montgomery County residents are being shut out of jobs here as Frederick and Carroll County workers seek our higher wages. They then take that money back to those jurisdictions, where they enjoy a far-lower cost of living, he said. Those counties then enjoy the tax and spending money benefits of Montgomery County retail and restaurant jobs, while putting more cars on our roads during rush hour.
Ilaya Hopkins, VP of public affairs for the Montgomery County Chamber of Commerce, said there are several problems with the proposed increase. First, it provides a "one-size-fits-all" solution to a diverse economy and labor market. Second, the potential impacts haven't been fully studied. And third, it further handicaps Montgomery County in its competition with other local jurisdictions where it is cheaper to start and operate a business.
The failure of the County's Nighttime Economy Initiative, after which there are fewer nightclubs in Bethesda than before it was implemented, is only one challenge for restaurant and bar owners. A previous wage hike, multiple new regulations and fee hikes, and a costly County liquor sales monopoly already make doing business in the hospitality sector here more challenging than in Northern Virginia.
I'd love to see a cost analysis of how much county controlled liquor cost or profits the county. It's pretty clear the monopoly has cost the county it lost revenue from restaurants not willing to do business here. I think the county made $30 million through liquor sales. How does that compare to much have we lost in tax revenue?
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