Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

A higher wage will force chains to replace humans with robots
The Kansas City Star ^ | September 19, 2013 | James Sherk

Posted on 09/21/2013 12:16:21 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet

Medieval doctors bled their patients with leeches. Far from improving their condition, it left them worse off. Raising the wages of fast-food workers to $15 an hour would produce similar results for those the proposal is intended to help.

In America, minimum-wage workers are better paid than the average worker in Mexico. Why? It’s not because U.S. employers are more generous than their Mexican counterparts. Nor do Americans somehow deserve better pay.

American minimum-wage earners make more because they produce more. Better education and greater capital investment make American workers more productive, raising their earnings.

Competition forces businesses to pay workers according to their productivity. If companies pay less, their employees will jump ship to competitors. And if they pay workers more than they produce, they go out of business.

For better or worse, fast-food jobs are relatively low-productivity positions, typically filled by inexperienced workers. Most fast-food customers want a quick, inexpensive meal. They will not regularly pay premium prices for a burger and fries.

Doubling McDonalds’ wages would raise their total costs by 25 percent — well above profit margins. But raising prices would drive customers away.

If Congress mandated fast-food restaurants to pay $15 an hour, they would have to change operations to deliver the kind of productivity to justify those higher costs. That would mean replacing current workers with machines and hiring fewer, more skilled workers to maintain them.....

(Excerpt) Read more at kansascity.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Government
KEYWORDS: automation; minimumwage; retail; robots; workforce
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-8081 last
To: snarkybob; ontap

The argument, as I’ve seen it, is that raising minimum wage will cause prices to go up causing customer fall off and possible closure of the franchise.
So the customer has a right to cheap food, the owner has a right to his profits but the employees should just be grateful that they get to work 40 hours a week and still qualify for food stamps?

____________________________________________________________

Very good point..One which Mr. ontap will not respond to.

Outstanding comments!


81 posted on 09/23/2013 4:38:17 PM PDT by dragnet2 (Diversion and evasion are tools of deceit)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 78 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-8081 last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson