#FightFor15, Meet Your Robot Replacements

 

The push to increase the minimum wage is mostly a phenomenon among Democrats, with labor and other affiliated groups loudly pushing the Twitter hashtag #FightFor15, or a minimum wage of $15. Democratic governors and mayors, who have mostly failed their constituencies, have been eager to sign legislation greatly hiking the minimum wage, much to the delight of their union overlords at SEIU and the AFL-CIO.

This, of course, makes no sense to me as a conservative. I am a big believer in capitalism. The market should dictate prices, and companies should decide how much to pay employees. Governments do nothing but throw up roadblocks to success, stifle innovation, and destroy businesses, large and small. Governments also have no idea how to run a successful business. For proof, I give you the Postal Service.

Not being an economist, I like to be able to back up my position with facts and figures. I have read article after article that break down the numbers, showing that a government-inflated minimum wage is a failure. Articles like these:

The Washington Free Beacon has had many great articles about the deleterious effects of minimum wage laws. The other day, they published:

Restaurants in the nation’s capital experienced their worst hiring period in 15 years, fueling speculation that wage hikes are reducing employment opportunities.

Employment in the food service industry fell in Washington, D.C. even as it continued to increase in the region. Restaurants shed 1,400 jobs in the first six months of 2016, a three percent decrease and the largest loss of jobs since the 2001 recession, according to an analysis from American Enterprise Institute scholar Mark Perry.

The steep drop was isolated to D.C. Neighboring suburbs in Virginia and Maryland added nearly 3,000 jobs over the same period, a 1.6 percent increase in hiring.

Almost every article about the minimum wage discusses the impact on the food service industry, one of, if not the biggest sector that artificially inflated wages will cripple.

Recently, I attended the National Restaurant Association’s annual convention in Chicago. It is a massive show, with companies featuring every single product that restaurants need. From tables, to food, to cleaning products, everything you can think of (and many things you’d never think of) are on display. I’d been before and was excited to see the latest. I especially wanted to see what products were being offered to the food service industry to deal with high labor costs. I did not come away disappointed; there is an intense craving for alternate solutions.

The first company I saw was Casabots. According to their website:

Casabots is changing the way food is made. Food is fuel, yet its creation is a commitment which often demands considerable time and labor. From our founding in 2014 to our pilots today, Casabots’ team has focused on superb quality food prepared with minimal human time.

They had on display a salad robot. A customer looks at the touch screen, chooses the ingredients, and the robot makes a customized salad. I took this video of the process:

Notice in the video that there is another woman filming the salad robot as well. This happened a lot at the convention.

Next, I visited Apex Supply Chain Technologies. They offer different varieties of automated locker systems, with a myriad of different uses. My father grew up in Manhattan, and when I was a kid, he would reminisce about automats. Different food items would be on display behind glass. Put in a coin, open the door, and take out your selection.

Apex is like an automat on steroids, and smartphones have replaced coins. I took this video of how it works:

That one woman putting cookies in different slots could replace who knows how many other employees at a location.

Finally, truly saving the best for last, I met Seymour, the French Fry robot. Seymour is a creation of Rethink Robotics. On their website, they say:

The manufacturing world is changing, and so are its technology requirements. Flexible automation has become a priority in plants around the world, as companies seek new and cost-effective ways of responding to dynamic customer requirements.

The manufacturing factory of the future is up and running today – in local job shops and global manufacturing giants, and everywhere in between. Our smart, collaborative robots are leading to a more productive tomorrow. Now’s your chance to be a part of it.

Here is video of Seymour in action, simulating how “he” makes french fries:

Seymour will cook as many french fries as you program and will never complain, screw up, or call in sick. There were people lined up two deep to watch and take video of Seymour. It’s obvious people who run restaurants are looking for ways to cut back on labor costs.

These are just three of the companies hawking their wares to attendees of the National Restaurant Association’s annual convention. Food service operations will utilize salad and french fry robots, automated lockers, and countless other alternatives like touch-screen ordering kiosks. They will cut their costs, increase their quality and productivity, eliminate redundancy, and need fewer employees.

And then, #FightFor15 will have to become #FightForAJob.

Published in Economics
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There are 12 comments.

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  1. Patrickb63 Coolidge
    Patrickb63
    @Patrickb63

    Up next- Mandated minimum numbers of employees.  Just wait.  Every fast food place will be mandated to have a minimum number of employees per shift once robotics and self serve kiosks are fully implemented.

    • #1
  2. Baker Inactive
    Baker
    @Baker

    In its defense, the Postal Service also has an oversight committee that makes doing business even harder. That committee is called Congress.

    https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/109/hr22/text

    • #2
  3. Ralphie Inactive
    Ralphie
    @Ralphie

    When the ACA was passed, Nancy Pelosi sung the praises of the law freeing people to pursue their dreams of creativity.  An artist I know defined creativity as solving a problem. You have a problem, you have to solve it. It requires some basic knowledge/background  and risk taking.  Robotics are creatively solving problems.    Pelosi should be happy at this trend because thanks to the ACA people are free to create robots and systems to replace the boring awful jobs that fast food workers have to endure, freeing them for higher, loftier pursuits. The fifteen dollar minimum wage is a logical step in the direction of more and more freedom for the lower wage workers.

    • #3
  4. Pelayo Inactive
    Pelayo
    @Pelayo

    Jobs at fast-food restaurants are “starter jobs” for young men and women trying to earn some spending money.  It is not supposed to be a career as a “French-Fry Engineer”.  The whole Fight for 15 campaign is insane.

    If I had a dollar for every time one of my orders has been wrong at a fast-food restaurant I could take a nice vacation somewhere.  Why should someone who can’t even get a simple hamburger order right make $15 an hour?  I am a Capitalist.  If you do something that is worth $15 an hour then you deserve it.  Otherwise you should be paid what your output is worth in the marketplace.  Many of the kids working at McDonalds do such a lousy job they don’t even deserve the current minimum wage they are paid.

    I feel sorry for the teenagers who will not have access to these “starter jobs” in a few years.  I completely agree that automation will eliminate many of these jobs and that is a shame.  Kids learn a lot of valuable lessons from these early work experiences.

    • #4
  5. Pilli Inactive
    Pilli
    @Pilli

    The #FightFor15 is not really about a “living wage” for french fry cooks.  It is about a massive raise for all the public sector union members whose higher wages are still pegged to minimum wage.  If the minimum wage goes from $7.00 to $15.00 they automatically, without any new collective bargaining, get an $8.00 raise.  It’s about the unions not the entry level workers.

    • #5
  6. Pilli Inactive
    Pilli
    @Pilli

    I worked at McDonald’s while in college.  Let’s look at what McDonald’s has done to reduce costs since then.

    THEN: A fresh (not frozen) patty was placed on the griddle.  At the same time, a bun was placed in the toaster.  The same time the patty was ready to turn, the warm bun came out of the toaster and was dressed with the mustard, ketchup and pickle topping.  Cheese too if required.

    The turned patty had onions placed on top then the bottom of the bun was placed on that.  The steam rose up into the bun adding flavor.  When all was ready, the meat, onions and bun were placed on the top half of the bun, wrapped and given to the customer.  Total time: 3.5 minutes for a hot steaming burger.

    NOW: A cold bun top (untoasted) is dressed with mustard, ketchup and pickle (cheese if required.)  A meat patty that was cooked from frozen by an appliance that does both sides at once and then placed in a plastic drawer for storage is retrieved and placed on the bun top.  A few onions are placed on the cool patty and the bun bottom is placed on that, wrapped and given to the customer.  Total time: about 6 minutes for a room temp burger because the kid at the counter  is busy trying to do 12 other things and can’t.

    I don’t have much hope that a robot will deliver a good burger.

    • #6
  7. mezzrow Member
    mezzrow
    @mezzrow

    Patrickb63:Up next- Mandated minimum numbers of employees. Just wait. Every fast food place will be mandated to have a minimum number of employees per shift once robotics and self serve kiosks are fully implemented.

    Every burger joint will have to have a fireman.  Certified, of course.  And unionized, perhaps a public employee.

    Safety.  Think of the children!

    • #7
  8. Kozak Member
    Kozak
    @Kozak

    Burger Robot.

    • #8
  9. Kozak Member
    Kozak
    @Kozak

    Pilli: I don’t have much hope that a robot will deliver a good burger.

    @pilli see#8

    • #9
  10. Henry Castaigne Member
    Henry Castaigne
    @HenryCastaigne

    Kozak: Pilli: I don’t have much hope that a robot will deliver a good burger.

    Then we should be teaching people how to deliver really good burgers. We need to focus on the jobs of the future and not jobs of the past.

    • #10
  11. Johnny Dubya Inactive
    Johnny Dubya
    @JohnnyDubya

    It’s stunning to me how – despite its domination of higher education, which churns out thousands of college graduates each year, many of whom have presumably taken Econ 101 – progressivism seems unable to accept the basic fact that you cannot dictate higher wages without unintended negative consequences.

    Much of their thinking is no more sophisticated than this:

    We need more of X, therefore, let’s make X compulsory.  We need less of Y, therefore, let’s make Y illegal.

    Activists and politicians such as Bernie Sanders encourage the mandating of a “living” wage (whatever that is) and bemoan “starvation” wages (though literally no one in this country starves).  How on Earth can you set a floor on wages – thereby essentially making work illegal for those whose labor is worth less than the floor – and not expect it to put people out of work?  The only way to do it is to also dictate the numbers of people who are employed.  Then, you get into a Venezuelan level of meddling in the economy, which never ends well.

    • #11
  12. Duane Iverson Member
    Duane Iverson
    @

    There are a substancial number of people, wonderful people, who make great waters, dish washers, cooks, janitors, salad makers, and the like. They, though made by God and a 0pleasure to work with or be served by, are never going to be capable of anything more complex then pushen-broom or burger flipping. For these people the coming robot revolution is a disaster! The others who could rise above burger flipping won’t have that rung of the ladder to start from. Hope the union guys love there extra eight now, because their retirement is going to really suck!

    • #12
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