Third in a series. 

Re: “Meet Workers Who Don’t Want a Raise” 

While the new $15 minimum wage approved recently by the Los Angeles City Council and County Board of Supervisors, has been popularly cast as a speedboat trip to instant parity for the lightest paid workers, that is well wide of the truth, says Culver City restaurateur Ken Kaufman.

“Unfortunately, the people who need (a wage boost) the most, whom I am in favor of giving a raise, the back-of-the-house (restaurant) workers, won’t see the benefits of this change for years,” he said.

“Most of them are in the $12-$13-$14 wage now.”

The owner of Downtown’s Rush Street and City Tavern sees the heavily trumpeted pay hikes as mixed.

“For restaurants, this will help the front-of-the-house people, hurt the employers and not help the people they mean to help,” Mr. Kaufman said.

“It’s kind of ironic to me. That is too bad.”

Fifteen dollars an hour, by 2020, is not a number snatched blindly from the stratosphere by uniquely wise politicians, in the restaurateur’s opinion.

What motivated the L.A. City Council two months ago to impose the wage jump?

“Honestly, I think it is a snowball effect from around the country, to raise the standard of living for our lowest paid workers,” Mr. Kaufman said. “

“The attack is a good one for fast-food workers, for example. “They were making no tips, minimum wage. It is absolutely correct for the WalMarts of the world. They are getting very low wages, trying to feed their families and all of that.

“Unfortunately,” Mr. Kaufman said, “there is no nuance there. They are not understanding the nuance is who it is really affecting. I think there will be a tremendous amount of  unintended consequences.”

(To be continued)