When you go to a restaurant, you're mostly buying labor
Wages have stagnated, but rent and energy has gone up. It's mostly the rent that you are paying for when you eat out.
Wages have stagnated, but rent and energy has gone up. It's mostly the rent that you are paying for when you eat out.
Specifically in HCOL coastal cities, we've seen increases to minimum wage, adjustments to the "tipped minimum wage" laws that mean business needs to cover more of the wage, and finally.. labor shortages causing restaurants to pay over even those increased minimums.
It wasn't long ago NYC minimum wage was under $10/hr, with "tipped minimum" being $7/hr. Now you have some restaurants paying $20/hr to get staff.