Big paydays at 'the other NRA'.

• Author: Lueders, Bill
• Position: SMOKING GUN - National Restaurant Association - Brief article

It's the nation's leading lobby group for restaurants and drinking establishments, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, so powerful it's been called "the other NRA." And one of the National Restaurant Association's top issue areas is fighting efforts to raise the minimum wage. Small hikes in the minimum wage have nonetheless passed in more than a dozen U.S. communities, including Oakland, San Francisco, Seattle, Chicago, and Los Angeles.

One recent posting on the group's website, headlined "What Happens When a City Raises Its Minimum Wage 36 Percent?," cited a survey in which 27 percent of the owners of Oakland businesses, including restaurants, said it was "very likely" or "somewhat likely" they would have to close their...