There’s no doubt that when employers are forced to raise the minimum wage for their entry level workers, there are people who benefit in the short term. But then come the consequences of forced wage hikes:

Restaurant chain Red Robin is cutting busboys at each of its 570 restaurants to cut costs amid minimum wage hikes across the United States.

“We need to do that to address the labor increases we’ve seen,” Red Robin’s CFO Guy Constant told attendees Monday at a retail conference in Florida, the New York Post reported.

Abigail Hall Blanco teaches economics at the University of Tampa. She reacts to the Red Robin story this way:

Despite what many people, including policymakers, would argue, this is an altogether painfully predictable response to increased labor costs. It’s basic economics. The “first law of demand” teaches us that when the price of a good or service increases, people will tend to buy fewer units. Conversely, when the price of a good or service decreases, people will tend to buy more. This idea is usually presented no later than chapter 3 in any econ 101 textbook.

JLF’s Jon Sanders recently weighed in on the consequences of Seattle’s mandated wage hikes.