Today’s read comes from Heidi Mann, the owner and manager of two Subway franchises in the greater Seattle area. Here’s a portion.

Seattle’s rapid minimum wage increase forced us to drastically cut our expenses in order to continue running our business efficiently.

We were forced to terminate four of our seven employees since we simply could not afford the new costs of labor. We then shortened our business hours to accommodate this reduced staff. Employees’ hours were cut, and their shifts were changed to concentrate on staffing our peak hours.

These changes occurred rapidly and led to an immediate drop in team morale.

We started this business believing in the American dream, but our dream of being our own boss, of earning a fair wage for our family, and of helping others through meaningful employment, is slowly becoming a pipe dream that is less and less a reality.

Read the entire column here.