Some research from James Sherk, Senior Policy Analyst in Labor Economics, and Salim Furth, Ph.D and Senior Policy Analyst - Macroeconomics, about what the impact of the called for increase in minimum wage from $9.04 (the 2013 average) to $15.50 would be on fast-food restaurants. Their research shows that the increase would cause a drop in profits of about 77%, a drop in sales of about 36%, a drop in total worker hours of about 36%, and an increase in prices of about 38%. Their conclusion is that, in the long run, some restaurants would close, the surviving businesses would shift to fewer, higher-skilled workers and more labor-saving technology such as ordering by kiosk as can be seen in France in the 2012 video below. https://youtube/watch?v=dRyscGaXM_0 ...at a McDonalds near Versailles in France. This kiosk offered customers the ability to order food in one of five different languages with a credit card and then pick it up at a window near the cash registers, where French speakers could wait in line and order. Very cool. Also the development of burger making machines that, according to the Momentum Machines web page momentummachines/ The next generation of fast food - Our technology will democratize access to high quality food making it available to the masses. Their web page also make the statement that Our alpha machine frees up all of the hamburger line cooks in a restaurant. You can read frees up to mean that there is no need for cooks anymore. To see the replacement of workers with machines in the fast food industry just look to Europe and Japan. A Japanese sushi-chain has robots making food while customers order on a touch screen. A conveyer belt delivers the food and a computer tracks purchases and automates the bill payment. Over the last few years in Europe McDonalds has upgraded to touch-screen kiosks which replaces cashiers entirely and the company is trying out burger flippers cutting back on more employees in the EU. A Chinese restauranteur has developed a robotic chef which can be found in some noodle bars and, at a cost of $1,500, is much cheaper than a human. So, according to Josh Kerns, The saddest thing for this story, if you follow it, is robots will replace human beings in these McDonalds and fast food restaurants and low skill workers will have really no place to go. Regards, Jerry
Posted on: Sun, 21 Sep 2014 17:07:55 +0000
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