New York City's hotly contested minimum wage increase to $15 — up from $13 or $13.50, depending on employer size — rolled out citywide at the start of the year. And although that's good news for NYC restaurant servers, patrons are grumbling about its impact on menu prices at their favorite eateries.
Ahead of the wage hike, the NYC Hospitality Alliance conducted a survey of 574 local food establishments in late 2018. They found that 87 percent of respondents planned to increase menu prices this year to offset the minimum wage bump. True to their promise, the cost of food has risen at various spots around the city.
"Basically, the prices will have gone up at every restaurant in New York," Jon Bloostein, CEO and founder of Manhattan chain Heartland Brewery, tells The Post. At his Midtown beer-and-burger joints, he says he's now charging a dollar more for several entrees, 50 cents to a dollar more on appetizers and 50 cents more on pints of beer as a direct result of the wage shift. The changes will be even more dramatic at high-end spots, he adds: "At a tablecloth restaurant, a chicken dinner with a vegetable and a side [used to go] for $26 to $28, and now it's $32 to $34," he says, giving general estimates.