Rent and payroll.
Both, but I see your point. Commercial rents in NYC, especially in that area, have outpaced the market to such an extent that there are whole city blocks with just one or two stores left open. Many mom-and-pop stores have closed.
Pay roll would increase 512,000 a year. Which is a staggering amount, unless you compare to 14,300,000 in sales.
I understand that restaurants have a very narrow profit margin. But if you can only make a profit by subjecting your employees to poverty wages, then the problem is on you. Those very same high value employees that create a profitable business can go to any other restaurant and make the same wage.
I think the main culprit here is that the cost of living has vastly outpaced the accompanying minimum wage. Combine that with the copious amount of inflation we've seen over the last 20 years, and it's no surprise that everyone is struggling.
It's not that I disagree with you; it's that I enjoy a good discussion.
So.
The owners of the restaurant are (were) in business to make money. To borrow a line from Boiler Room, we're not saving the fucking manatees here. Simplifying the situation down to 'poverty wages' is disingenuous. Multiple factors go into owning and running a business, including the free exchange pf labor for money.
Now, in NYC, $15 per hour is nowhere near a living wage, due to more than just business owner greed or the current administration's policies. Then again, the minimum wage was never intended to be a living wage, just a starting point for someone workig their first job. You got a shitty job making shitty pay, you learned some skills and moved up the ladder.
Lols, so they cited rising rent as a primary reason that they can't afford to pay their employees more. The same employees, who themselves are dealing with rising rent and stagnating wages.
So instead if maybe cutting hours back or finding some solution to the issue, they close down and lay off 150 people.