Though nobody’s keeping a formal tally of unfilled positions, chefs at restaurants from casual to ambitious say Seattle’s growth—and related circumstances like high rents and insufficient transit—leaves their kitchens seriously short staffed. Our breakneck civic expansion has produced a multitude of new restaurants, but no corresponding influx of cooks—the men and women who endure hours of physical work for modest pay, who actually dice the onions and fire that cod entree.
...
The scarcity means those cooks, especially the quality ones, command a few bucks more per hour than they used to. Meanwhile bosses simultaneously cheer the idea of talented employees earning more money and ponder how to absorb those costs well ahead of Seattle’s graduated $15 minimum wage schedule.
If "bosses" really "cheer the idea of talented employees earning more money" they could just, you know, pay them more money.
Jeebus.