Careful what ya wish for($15hr.)

It may come true. Seems automation, which was probably inevitable anyway, has been sped up with the advent of the "fight for fifteen", the push by Mcworkers et. al. is coming back to bite 'em in the arse.

Thanks To 'Fight For $15' Minimum Wage, McDonald's Unveils Job-Replacing Self-Service Kiosks Nationwide

As the labor union-backed Fight for $15 begins yet another nationwide strike on November 29, I have a simple message for the protest organizers and the reporters covering them: I told you so.

It brings me no joy to write these words. The push for a $15 starter wage has negatively impacted the career prospects of employees who were just getting started in the workforce while extinguishing the businesses that employed them. I wish it were not so. But it’s important to document these consequences, lest policymakers elsewhere decide that the $15 movement is worth embracing.

Earlier this month, McDonald’s announced the nationwide roll-out of touchscreen self-service kiosks. In a video the company released to showcase the new customer experience, it’s striking to see employees who once would have managed a cash register now reduced to monitoring a customer’s choices at an iPad-style kiosk.

EDIT:Corrected opening line.

It’s not just McDonald’s that has embraced job-replacing technology. Numerous restaurant chains (both quick service and full service) have looked to computer tablets as a solution for rising labor costs that won’t adversely impact the customer’s experience. Eatsa, a fully-automated restaurant concept, now has five locations—all in cities or states that have embraced a $15 minimum wage. And in a scene stolen from The Jetsons, the Starship delivery robot is now navigating the streets of San Francisco with groceries and other consumer goods. The company’s founder pointed to a rising minimum wage as a key factor driving the growth of his automated delivery business.

Of course, not all businesses have the capital necessary to shift from full-service to self-service. And that brings me to my next correct prediction–that a $15 minimum wage would force many small businesses to lay off staff, seek less-costly locations, or close altogether.

Tragically, these stories—in California in particular–are too numerous to cite in detail here. They include a bookstore in Roseville, a pub in Fresno, restaurants and bakeries in San Francisco, a coffee shop in Berkeley, grocery stores in Oakland, a grill in Santa Clara, and apparel manufacturers through the state. In September of this year, nearly one-quarter of restaurant closures in the Bay Area cited labor costs as one of the reasons for shutting down operations. And just this past week, a California-based communications firm announced it was moving 75 call center jobs from San Diego to El Paso, citing the state’s rising minimum as the “deciding factor.” (Dozens of additional stories can be found at the website FacesOf15.com.)

https://www.forbes.com/sites/realspin/2016/11/29/thanks-to-fight-for-15-minimum-wage-mcdonalds-unveils-job-replacing-self-service-kiosks-nationwide/?ref=yfp#3d6c21fe762e

Not about McDonalds or $15 min wage, but I finally learned to self-checkout at Walmart. Wow! What took me so long?

Think I'll ever stand in a Walmart checkout line again? Hell no. Sorry, but their self-checkout is technologically excellent, easy and fast, including produce. And I'm sure those machines don't call in sick or piss and moan about job conditions.

For what used to take AT LEAST 20 minutes in line (partly because of stupid customers who wait until the total is rung to start looking through their purses for the money, checkbook, etc.) I can be outta there in LESS THAN five. If it means fewer checkers (and it looks to be the case), so sorry. They could reassign them to assisting customers throughout the store, or some other jobs to improve overall service.

Kroger, at least the one I used, needs to take lessons from Walmart on their self-checkout. Their system has some kinks. Hopefully they'll improve it in time.

Candy, does Walmart sell foie gras?

This is a very interesting topic. Although, I think you have the wrong take on it.
Increasing minimum wage is more important because of automation not because keeping it low serves as some sort of backstop against automation.

For example, Trump says he is going to bring back manufacturing jobs to the U.S. At this point, I say it doesn’t matter because manufacturing is getting close to being fully automated. It doesn’t matter if the factory of bots is in China, the U.S. or Mexico because in ten years there will be very few jobs there.

However, the food industry is probably one of the most difficult industries to automate. Why? Because of food safety, the constant need for equipment sanitation and the massive volume and variety of raw ingredients that have to be loaded into the machines. I think automated ordering in fast food is becoming a reality, but I see that as having a minimal impact on employment. If you eliminate people working the register, you need employees to bring out food to the customers. (something they currently don’t do) The point being since McDonalds is always going to have to have workers, why not require them to pay a living wage?

The real coming problem with automation is the elimination of high paying jobs, not low paying jobs. We are almost there in manufacturing and what comes next is the elimination of employees in the trucking/transportation industry. When that happens, coupled with the manufacturing job losses, there simply won’t be enough jobs to employ people. For all the hand-wringing about income redistribution, 20-40 years from now large portions of the population won’t do any meaningful work, and a lot of big tech thinkers from the tech industry(the ones doing the automating) are saying that wages will have to be replaced by a universal basic income paid by the government.

Both places deliver. Krogers charges to deliver, but I can place an order and in two hours, they will ,for no charge, pick it and have it sitting there for me to pickup. That service is free.

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Originally posted by: malibber2
This is a very interesting topic. Although, I think you have the wrong take on it.
Increasing minimum wage is more important because of automation not because keeping it low serves as some sort of backstop against automation. q]

Not really.

Automation is expensive. When labor cost exceed automation cost in a given industry a switch will be made.

Manufacturing that has been moved out of the country is not automated to any significant degree. It is easy to throw a large workforce at a manufacturing line when labor cost a dollar an hour with no benefits.

Even electronics made overseas are mostly assembled, even circuits "wired" by hand.

The auto industry in Mexico is far less automated than a sister assembly line in the US. And why not when a worker in Mexico is paid about $3.75 an hour. That's for a high skill level job.

As far as the fast food industry is concerned, automation will make a dent in labor. The front end accounts for about a third of the workforce? So 2/3 of the employees will be making more money but that 1/3 will be out of a job. Oh, and that CEO who made the decision to automate, he's going to get a big fat bonus for saving the company money.

Ok. It's a fake. But there is absolutely no reason that all current manual labor jobs at McDonalds Restaurants can't be automated. It's just not that hard to make fast food. In 20 years everything from picking fruit to cleaning toilets won't need humans. Then what do we do with all the unskilled workers 'doing the work Americans refuse to do'? There isn't any work that American machines refuse to do.

We will have a market for foreign machines to do what American machines refuse to do.

McDonalds already staffs their restaurants with 1/3 of the crew they did in 1980 because of automation. This has resulted in massive growth in profit margins for the franchises - and yet they will tell you they cant afford to pay more than minimum wage despite the reduced staff. Workers are calling it out for what it is- Greed.

There is an existential question about what the minimum quality of life someone should afford if they give an employer 40 hours of labor each week. Having access to shelter, food, and medicine is not too much to ask for - unless you're a greedy prick. And there are lots of those around.

As usual pj deals with fantasy.

The facts

As of 2013, the U.S. restaurant franchise with the highest sales is Chick-fil-A. Its restaurants average gross revenues of $3.1 million per year. McDonald's is second with $2.6 million in annual single-store sales..
Profit margins are typically low for restaurants in general and especially for restaurants owned by individual franchisees. The average profit margin for the restaurant industry overall is 2.4 percent, as of 2013. The margin is down from 3.2 percent in 2009. The average franchised restaurant location makes a profit of less than $50,000 per year as of 2013

So a doubling of the minimum wage will force most of these places into the red.