Future of Minimum Wage

Fire_Marshall_Bill said:

Someone brought up the supermarket comparison. A few have the automated check-outs but most don't. Albertson's got rid of them, at least around here. No Safeways have them. Neither do Trader Joe, Whore Foods, I mean Whole Foods...sorry Stalin, Sprouts, hippy organic places or Food City. Fry's has some, but they also usually have at least two or three breather checkout folks, and 5-8 during peak business times. I remember people freaking out about automation in groceries around 2001 when these first started and 15 years later they really haven't replaced many jobs. A lot of people, even borderline misanthropes such as myself find this kind of thing impersonal and rarely use it.

RaceBannon said:

I welcome our robot overlords

allpurpleallgold said:

greenblood said:

I laughed when Oregon just passed their minimum wage bill.

Wages in Portland within six years will be $14.25/hour, Eugene/Salem $13.50/hr, and rural $12.50/hr.

All this is going to do is increase poverty. Most minimum wage jobs are store clerks, waiters/waitresses, gas attendants, etc.

Changes that will happen sooner or later.

McDonalds, Wendys, Burger King, etc. will take out the cash register attendant and will go to a self serve POS system. Customers can order their food through a touchscreen, then pay by card or cash through the machine. The order will be sent to cooks, who prepare the order. They can then ring a bill and announce completed orders by number for the person to pick it up. All they need is 3 cooks and someone to clean the store.

Waiters/waitresses will make less. Because as restaurants up their prices, people like me will stop tipping. Many of these tips come in cash and are not reported to the IRS, thus they get it tax free. Say goodbye to that.

Gas attendants. It looks like Ducks will be pumping their own gas pretty soon. You can't tell me these business chains aren't going to put pressure on the state to change the law allowing for self pump stations.

Safeway, Albertsons, Fred Meyer, Walmart, etc. will be dominated by self check out stands. They have them already, but expect that number to multiply.

With increased prices the people making $15-$17.00/hr will now see their disposable income shrink, and more people working minimum wage jobs will be unemployed because their cost of employment is no longer beneficial compared to technology. One guy setting on his ass making sure the machines are running like they are supposed to will not make up for the multiple jobs lost by these machines.

Which is why I think most liberals lack mental thinking.

You think I'm wrong. In Portland alone, each McDonalds store would save $5,300/week in wages by putting in a machine. There are obviously going to be sunk cost for the equipment, but the $275,000 saved in wages each year would make up for that very quickly. The number is based on losing three clerks per shift. Even only cutting two per shift is a $180,000/year savings.

Obviously I didn't read all of this but I'm standing by the fast food thing being wrong. Fast food places will try it but it won't work. People will fuck up way more orders than a cashier would and they'll take longer. When you press Big Mac and then 10 seconds later switch to a quarter pounder you've cost McDonald's money.

The only time it would be viable would be during slow hours but you still need people to hand out the food. You could save maybe two shifts a day and anything you'd be saving would be cut into by food waste from dumb fucks that don't know how to order (50% of the customers).

allpurpleallgold said:

greenblood said:

2001400ex said:

greenblood said:

2001400ex said:

greenblood said:

I laughed when Oregon just passed their minimum wage bill.

Wages in Portland within six years will be $14.25/hour, Eugene/Salem $13.50/hr, and rural $12.50/hr.

All this is going to do is increase poverty. Most minimum wage jobs are store clerks, waiters/waitresses, gas attendants, etc.

Changes that will happen sooner or later.

McDonalds, Wendys, Burger King, etc. will take out the cash register attendant and will go to a self serve POS system. Customers can order their food through a touchscreen, then pay by card or cash through the machine. The order will be sent to cooks, who prepare the order. They can then ring a bill and announce completed orders by number for the person to pick it up. All they need is 3 cooks and someone to clean the store.

Waiters/waitresses will make less. Because as restaurants up their prices, people like me will stop tipping. Many of these tips come in cash and are not reported to the IRS, thus they get it tax free. Say goodbye to that.

Gas attendants. It looks like Ducks will be pumping their own gas pretty soon. You can't tell me these business chains aren't going to put pressure on the state to change the law allowing for self pump stations.

Safeway, Albertsons, Fred Meyer, Walmart, etc. will be dominated by self check out stands. They have them already, but expect that number to multiply.

With increased prices the people making $15-$17.00/hr will now see their disposable income shrink, and more people working minimum wage jobs will be unemployed because their cost of employment is no longer beneficial compared to technology. One guy setting on his ass making sure the machines are running like they are supposed to will not make up for the multiple jobs lost by these machines.

Which is why I think most liberals lack mental thinking.

You think I'm wrong. In Portland alone, each McDonalds store would save $5,300/week in wages by putting in a machine. There are obviously going to be sunk cost for the equipment, but the $275,000 saved in wages each year would make up for that very quickly. The number is based on losing three clerks per shift. Even only cutting two per shift is a $180,000/year savings.

Pump my gas, duck.

Oh yeah, you have no idea about how small business work.

That's funny, because I run a small business. By paying payroll taxes every quarter, I think I have a better understanding than you on employee cost.

Yet you still don't get it. Not to mention your math is way fucking off. 2 clerks per shift isn't close to $180k. Remember how a fast food restaurant works. There's a peak time for lunch and dinner rush, other than that, they staff with 1 person at the register the rest of the day. A kiosk won't solve that unless you have a robot bringing people food now.

Not to mention you don't get the economics at a fast food restaurant. They have a high marginal return on labor. In other words, as sales go up, their labor percentage goes down.

I remember the same argument in Montana when minimum wage went from 5.15 to 7.25 in 2 years. What happened to fast food restaurants? They grew and more than covered the cost of the labor. Weird, right? Not really when you look at the percentage of fast food money that comes from minimum wage people.

I am curious tho, what type of small business do you run?

My argument is that they won't have somebody delivering food. How hard is it for a cook to intercom "#54 your order is ready" hell pizza parlors do it, why can't McDonald's?

APAG how much do you think a hamburger patty costs the food chain? That's what I thought. just like apvie ticket kiosk, they wouldn't make it until you processed the order, but even then most of the food is pre-made anyways, especially during rush times.

The problem with you APAG is that Honda isn't right, you're just as clueless as he is.

Fast food doesn't have as high a return as you think. They have great output but let's also not forget, the average order is around $5.00 per person, and that's gross revenue.

Pre-made lol. Ok you're just popping off to pop off.

Why don't you go tell a manager at any fast food restaurant that you have a brilliant plan to save them money, all they have to do is increase food cost and customer wait times. See how they react.

Fire_Marshall_Bill said:

No Safeways have them.