Even the threat of a minimum wage hike is enough to get many more businesses to accelerate automation. Instead of more tax money via wage hikes, we will of course have less aggregate tax collection via fewer employees. And that also means fewer employees paying union dues, and less tribute for the Dims campaign coffers.
But, OTOH, there will be more welfare cases, which means more Dim voters.
Also look for another Luddite movement as Dims, racial and poverty pimps demonize evil greedy white businessmen running urban McDonald’s with more machines. A little more civil unrest is always a good way to keep the mob engaged in politics and voting for Dims.
Automation vs. the unions goes back many decades. Look at the transformation of the automobile assembly line.
Whenever the unions managed to defeat industry efforts at automation, management started shipping jobs overseas.
This kerfuffle over fast food workers’ pay is minor compared to the battles over heavy industry automation some sixty years back.
The “Rust Belt” of the American northeast wasn’t always that way.