Feeling the pain of a $12.25 minimum wage

CBS News reports:

With cities such as Seattle phasing in higher minimum wages, one city has already had a taste of a $12.25 hour baseline rate, and the experience hasn't been all that painless.

After voter approval, Oakland, California, a neighbor to San Francisco, boosted its minimum wage by more than one-third to $12.25 an hour on March 1. With one month of higher wages under their belts, 223 businesses provided feedback on their experiences to the Employment Policies Institute, a fiscally conservative think tank.

The experiences haven't been entirely positive as more than one-quarter of respondents said they're somewhat or very likely to shut down as a response to the new wage law. Almost half of businesses have increased prices to cope, while another one-third said they've reduced employee hours or their hours of operation to meet the higher costs.

The study could serve as a barometer for other cities that are considering boosting the minimum wage, the EPI said.

The demand for labor is always a downward sloping curve. Always.