While CEO compensation skyrockets, Fox News wants you to think everybody is going to go broke if Democrats enact a minimum wage of $15-an-hour.
A recent report by the Economic Policy Institute found that the average pay of CEOs at the top 350 firms in 2018 was $17.2 million – or $ 14.0 million, using a more conservative measure. That’s a 278-to-1 or 221-to-1 ratio to a typical worker, according to EPI.
But Fox News is suggesting the economy will collapse if workers are guaranteed a living – not exorbitant – wage.
On Fox & Friends this morning, guest Jon Taffer, of Bar Rescue, called the prospect of a $15 minimum wage “horrifying” and one which “no industry can sustain.”
“It's a crisis mode,” Taffer claimed. “You either have to raise prices significantly or you cut labor." He also claimed, "We're going to eliminate employees and we're going to incentivize more robotics."
Cohost Steve Doocy pressed for more details of pending doom. "What happened in Seattle?" he asked.
"Almost a thousand restaurants closed," Taffer answered.
"That's a cautionary tale of what would happen elsewhere if that went through?" Doocy “asked.”
"It is, it was a shock to the industry," Taffer said. "When they talk about raising wages and raising taxes, ehhh, it doesn't make sense to me."
FACT CHECK: When Seattle raised the minimum wage to $15 four years ago, Vox recently reported, “Employers, like restaurant owners, raised the alarm that the new wage would force them to close businesses, raise prices, fire workers, or move their businesses outside of the city limits.” Yet, the number of restaurant jobs has risen by 24,000. The article concludes that those who demanded a higher wage "were right to do so."
Nobody challenged Taffer’s statistics or offered facts on how many restaurants closed each year before the minimum wage hike.
Watch Fox try to scare viewers out of a living wage below, from the September 17, 2019 Fox & Friends.
Published with permission of NewsHounds.us
