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

Skip to comments.

The Minimum-Wage Job-Killer Strikes Again!
IBD ^ | 06/26/2017

Posted on 06/26/2017 7:38:11 AM PDT by SeekAndFind

McDonald's stock has hit new highs in recent days, despite fast-food industry woes. Why? Mickey-D's is replacing 2,500 human workers with digital kiosks this year. Way to go, minimum-wage advocates!

Working from the absurd idea that if higher wages are good for individual workers, it must be socially beneficial to have government order all employers to pay their workers more, progressives and other leftists have had extraordinary success in forcing small businesses to pay higher minimum wages.

Big Mac's stock is up 27% this year. Why? Pushed by concerns over a rising minimum wage, the fast-food chain is replacing human cashiers as fast as it can. But it really has no choice.

By the end of 2017, it plans to have digital cashiers in 2,500 restaurants; by 2018, another 3,000 restaurants will go digital. They're also going to let you order via mobile device at 14,000 restaurants by year end. McDonald's calls it the "Experience of the Future" strategy.

That's thousands of workers gone. That's no future jobs for young people with no skills, no training, no education and no alternative who might have found a job at McDonald's.

Don't blame Ronald McDonald. This is the inevitable result of the minimum wage, pushed down business' throats by politicians using the phony language of compassion and economic equality.

Since 2012, the labor-union driven "Fight For $15" movement to raise the federal minimum wage from the current $7.25 an hour to $15 an hour has demonized employers like McDonald's, Wal-Mart and Starbucks, among many others, for not paying workers "enough." Responding to this, Democrats in Congress now have 184 co-sponsors for a bill to do just that. Cities and states around the country have jacked up their own minimum wages.

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


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: automation; jobs; macdonalds; minimumwage
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-34 next last

1 posted on 06/26/2017 7:38:11 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

The long-term plan is to have most of the population unemployed(unemployable) after incentivizing employers to use robots by raising wages, then create a guaranteed income, which would create a guaranteed voter base for those who would want said guaranteed income to rise.


2 posted on 06/26/2017 7:43:19 AM PDT by baltimorepoet
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind
You can't fix stupid. Lately, the dems have been more stupid than the 'pubs. A case could be made for a $12 minimum wage for workers who have been fully trained to do their jobs. They over-reached for $15 an hour for everyone, which is destined to fail.

One can't help but think that the lunatic left is more interested in creating chaos than in solving problems.

3 posted on 06/26/2017 7:45:09 AM PDT by grania (Deplorable and Proud of It!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

This is already starting to happen.

I was in a Southern California McDonald’s yesterday with my young nephew (normally I avoid McDonald’s, I hadn’t set foot in one in years)...

And noticed two new self-order kiosks going in with “opening soon” signs.

My local WalMart just installed nine new self-service checkouts and Target too recently added about 12.

All due to California’s government- mandated minimum wage laws.


4 posted on 06/26/2017 7:45:49 AM PDT by Bon of Babble (In-a-Gadda-Da-Vida, Baby!!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

So stupid. Even a blind man can see it.

Forced higher wages=forced higher costs=necessitates cutting higher costs by reducing the payroll.

DUH!

The Lying Left. Purveyors of paltry fascist tyranny and destroyers of economic growth and wealth.


5 posted on 06/26/2017 7:46:44 AM PDT by Jim W N
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

I don’t understand why their stock is up. Their food is still crap and I don’t care if their robots are more efficient than the low-life they normally have, I still won’t go there.


6 posted on 06/26/2017 7:48:36 AM PDT by jeffc (The U.S. media are our enemy)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind
And oh BTW, federal minimum wage is TOTALLY UNCONSTITUTIONAL.

NUKE THE UNCONSTITUTIONAL FEDERAL MINIMUM WAGE!!!

7 posted on 06/26/2017 7:48:53 AM PDT by Jim W N
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind
From Zero Hedge, yesterday:

McDonalds Is Replacing 2,500 Human Cashiers With Digital Kiosks


8 posted on 06/26/2017 7:49:33 AM PDT by Bon of Babble (In-a-Gadda-Da-Vida, Baby!!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

An excellent cartoon illustration would be a McD’s working leaning on the counter, alone, with the caption:

“Dude, soooo glad we finally got our $15 an hour. Dude?”


9 posted on 06/26/2017 7:51:01 AM PDT by ConservativeWarrior (Fall down 7 times, stand up 8. - Japanese proverb)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

I’m surprised that IBD would say placing kiosks in 2,500 MacDonalds would only replace 2,500 workers. Our MacDonalds in a small town of 5,000 probably has 30 part time workers on duty at various times during the week. I suspect that the kiosks will replace most of these workers, and that the true number of workers replaced will be closer to 75,000 workers for this first round of kiosks. The effect of tens of thousands more MacDonalds, and the spread to other fast food outfits will be tremendously devastating to all their employees.

Or am I missing something?


10 posted on 06/26/2017 7:51:42 AM PDT by FNU LNU (Nothing runs like a Deere, nothing smells like a john)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

Wawa hut has been doing this for years.


11 posted on 06/26/2017 7:55:05 AM PDT by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

We need a minimum wage because a combination of open borders, illegal immigration and no floor on wages = 3rd world here we come. Sorry but that is the truth.


12 posted on 06/26/2017 7:57:18 AM PDT by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: grania

$15/hour in a $1 Value Meal world means make your own order and pour your own Coke.

A vote getter, but creates unemployment for the group it is supposed to help.


13 posted on 06/26/2017 8:03:32 AM PDT by Jimmy The Snake
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind
Besides the obvious labor savings, these new kiosks also have another advantage: no language barrier.

I can see on the first screen a selection of languages to use before continuing--English, Spanish, French, Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, Filipino, and so on. They're already doing that at a number of restaurants in Tokyo, especially at conveyor belt sushi (kaiten sushi) restaurants.

14 posted on 06/26/2017 8:08:29 AM PDT by RayChuang88 (FairTax: America's Economic Cure)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

Man/woman/boy/girl on the side of street:

“I voted for the democrats so I could get $15 an hour...Now I’m out of work...”


15 posted on 06/26/2017 8:10:51 AM PDT by JBW1949 (I'm really PC....PATRIOTICALLY CORRECT!!!!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind; All
The foolish, who think the world owes them a Job and "a living wage", are the same fools who will blame the world for Their failure to have either.

16 posted on 06/26/2017 8:11:33 AM PDT by SandRat (Duty, Honor, Country.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Bon of Babble
"..My local WalMart just installed nine new self-service checkouts and Target too recently added about 12.."

You're still patronizing Target? Tsk tsk. d;^)

17 posted on 06/26/2017 8:13:36 AM PDT by CopperTop (Outside the wire it's just us chickens. Dig?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: Jimmy The Snake
re: $15 and hour being a vote getter creating unemployment

That's my point. Maybe a vote getter, maybe a way to create anti-government sentiment. Either way, $15 an hour makes no sense. That's why I say $12 an hour for fully trained employees would be doable, but not what the lunatic left went for. They don't want victory. They want the issue.

This is where 'pubs have to be smarter. They should want as many people as possible to be self-sufficient. Nobody on "our" side is talking about that goal.

18 posted on 06/26/2017 8:19:00 AM PDT by grania (Deplorable and Proud of It!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

To: central_va
We need a minimum wage because a combination of open borders, illegal immigration and no floor on wages = 3rd world here we come. Sorry but that is the truth.

But it will be the illegals taking those minimum wage jobs from American teenagers. The illegals...errr... undocumented Union already has established a defacto $10/hour minimum wage (go to Home Depot and try to hire someone to lay sod to verify this). $15 is already in the "Union" queue.

19 posted on 06/26/2017 8:23:35 AM PDT by Auntie Dem (Hey! Hey! Ho! Ho! Terrorist lovers gotta go!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: SeekAndFind

“They’re also going to let you order via mobile device at 14,000 restaurants by year end.”

Everything is going this way. I’d better get a smartphone or I’ll starve to death, LOL! (Not gonna do it!)

I don’t do ‘fast food’ other than an occasional custard treat from Culver’s, but convenience is the key these days, it seems. And gawd-forbid you actually interact with another human being, when you can just keep your face in your phone or have a robot serve you. ;)


20 posted on 06/26/2017 8:23:39 AM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin (I don't have 'Hobbies.' I'm developing a robust Post-Apocalyptic skill set!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-34 next 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