[yellowapple]

> The owner of a restaurant who lays off waiters in order to spend less on salaries is not punishing the waiters.

It's punishment for demanding better pay. That makes it punitive, whether the mechanism for negotiating that better pay is "we voted for (people who will vote for) a minimum wage increase" or "we formed a union so we can collectively bargain for a wage increase" or what have you.

> Pick a more appropriate word.

Okay, then:

- Retaliatory

- Self-serving

- Douchebaggish

Do those work better for you? Or are you going to find some other excuse to nitpick and distract from the core issue of employers being full of shit when they blame wage increases for "needing" to lay people off?