IHOP Franchisee Says Minimum Wage Hikes That Force Layoffs, Reduced Hours Are ‘Painful’

People gather together to ask the McDonald’s corporation to raise workers’ wages to a $15 minimum wage as well as demanding the right to a union in Fort Lauderdale, Florida on May 23, 2019 Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Tom Baber, who operates an IHOP restaurant and a Money Mailer shop in Mercer County, New Jersey, has to deal with “very personally painful” consequences of state-imposed minimum wage increases every day.

“It’s very personally painful for me because I do not want one person to have to cut their hours or leave here, but there’s not a lot of choice for us,” Baber told reporters July 15 during an online news conference hosted by the Employment Policies Institute (EPI) think tank.