According to studies cited in the article below, a $15.00 minimum wage for fast-food workers would require only a 4% increase in operating costs. So let's see, that would mean my McDonald's sandwich would cost about 16 cents more. I guess you'd quit going to McDonald's if your Big Mac cost 16 cents more. I doubt many others would join you.
Seattle's $15 Minimum Wage Law, Explained - Eater
On an anecdotal note, the price of a senior coffee at my local McDonald's has risen from 50 cents to 80 cents in the past year, an increase of 60%. The employees are still making $8.50 an hour and the seniors are still sitting at the same table every morning drinking their coffee. I suspect if the cost of a large sandwich increased from $4.00 to $4.16 you would see the same result. Now, that's not saying the local management or corporate manager won't raise the cost even more to benefit their bottom line, but that will not be caused by raising wages to $15.00 per hour.
And some businesses that were doomed to fail for other reasons will have no problem blaming the increase in wages for their problems. The bottom line is that if your business can't absorb a 4% increase in operating costs, it will fail on its own when other costs rise. And the cost to consumers overall would be far less than 4%, because a minimum wage law would only effect those jobs being paid a minimum wage. The vast majority of your expenses would not be effected by an increase in the minimum wage, because those employees are already earning more than $15.00 per hour.
