An ironclad law of economics regarding employment is this: To be retained, an employee must return value to the employer in excess of the cost of employment. Minimum wage laws place an artificial floor on the cost of employment; these laws not only price the entry-level job-seekers out of the market but they force employers to seek alternatives to hiring people.

Now, Chick-fil-A, while not citing any minimum wage laws as a reason for implementing this, has introduced the automated lemon squeezer for their vaunted lemonade prep. //

These burger bots and lemon squeezers will price the low-skilled worker out of a range of jobs. True, to some extent, the move to automation is inevitable; automation increases efficiency, which every business seeks. Even so, there was a time, not all that long ago, when many young people's introduction to the workplace as entry-level workers was a job in a fast-food joint. Increasingly, automation, in order-taking and food preparation, is taking over from those young people and depriving them of valuable experience. Minimum wage law accelerates the loss of these entry-level jobs.

This is why, whenever a minimum wage law is proposed, the question to ask is, "Do you want more burger bots? Because this is how you get more burger bots.". //

DarthCY
17 days ago
The minimum wage is there for unions to have something to raise their wages from. That is why Dims covet it so much. Anybody who thinks you need to raise it to be able to sustain yourself off of a single minimum wage job is economically illiterate. //

Steamfish jacktate82
17 days ago
Keypunch operators, highway toll takers, telephone operators, uniformed gas station attendants, and newspaper delivery boys have all joined the jobs you mentioned as positions filled by humans in my youth but vanishing or gone today. The rise of AI will undoubtably be adding to that list soon.