New data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) disproves allegations promoted by Fox News that the 2015 increase in Seattle's minimum wage has destroyed restaurant jobs.

Earlier this month, Media Matters debunked an anti-minimum wage report produced by the conservative American Enterprise Institute (AEI) and promoted by Fox News that relied on cherry-picked data to allege that Seattle's decision to increase its minimum wage to $11 per hour in 2015 was negatively affecting the city's job market. The report pointed to a less than 1 percent change in total food service employment after the wage increase went into effect on April 1 as proof of the right-wing media myth that raising wages hurts more workers than it helps.

Now, newly-released data from the BLS reveals that Seattle's food service industry has actually added 1,800 jobs since the start of the year, despite the higher wage:

Fox and other right-wing media have a long history of attacking federal, state, and local minimum wages laws, and have a particular affinity for misleading the public about the supposed downsides of Seattle's incremental increase to $15 by 2017. The fact is, Seattle's minimum wage implementation was met with little anxiety in the business community, and has had no discernible effect on employment in the city.