Minimum wage increase no big deal at Stillwater cafe

A year ago, Stillwater’s Oasis Cafe caused an online firestorm when it added a 35-cent “fee” onto every bill to pay for the increase in the state’s minimum wage.

The minimum wage has gone up again, but this time the cafe has simply raised prices and gotten rid of the fee, the Pioneer Press reports.

Each menu item has been increased by 35 cents and customers haven’t noticed, the owner tells the newspaper.

Still, the restaurant lobby is claiming it’s a slippery slope.

“Prices have consequences,” Dan McElroy, executive vice president of the Minnesota Restaurant Association, said. “There’s a limit to what some people will pay.”

What is that limit? It’s not 35 cents.

The owner, Craig Beemer, says his business is up 20 percent in the last year.

And everyone seems happy.