Minimum-wage campaign for $15/h could speed arrival of robot-powered restaurants and reduced number
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[quote]Crowded. That’s how Ed Rensi remembers what life was like working at McDonald’s in 1966. There were about double the number of people working in the store — 70 or 80, as opposed to the 30 or 40 there today — because preparing the food just took a lot more doing.
[B]“When I first started at McDonald’s making 85 cents an hour, everything we made was by hand,” Rensi said — from cutting the shortcakes to stirring syrups into the milk for shakes. Over the years, though, ingredients started to arrive packaged and pre-mixed, ready to be heated up, bagged and handed out the window.[/B]
“More and more of the labor was pushed back up the chain,” said Rensi, who went on to become chief executive of the company in the 1990s. The company kept employing more grill cooks and cashiers as it expanded, but each one of them accounted for more of each store’s revenue as more sophisticated cooking techniques allowed each to become more productive.
The industry could be ready for another jolt as a ballot initiative to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour nears in the District and as other campaigns to boost wages gain traction around the country. [B]About 30 percent of the restaurant industry’s costs come from salaries, so burger-flipping robots — or at least super-fast ovens that expedite the process — become that much more cost-competitive if the current federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour is doubled.[/B]
“The problem with the •minimum-wage offensive is that it throws the accounting of the restaurant industry totally upside down,” said Harold Miller, vice president of franchise development for Persona Pizzeria, who also consults for other chains.[B] “My position is: Pay your people properly, keep them longer, treat them right, and robots are going to be helpful in doing that, because it will help the restaurateur survive.”
Many chains are already at work looking for ingenious ways to take humans out of the picture, threatening workers in an industry that employs 2.4 million wait staffers, nearly 3 million cooks and food preparers and many of the nation’s 3.3 million cashiers.[/B]
The advent of fast-food chains may have ushered in an era of new efficiencies, but the industry as a whole has largely been resistant to cuts in labor. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, since 1987, labor productivity in •limited-service restaurants has grown at a rate of only 0.3 percent per year, which is low compared with most other industries.
The market research company IBISWorld has calculated that [B]the average number of employees at fast-food restaurants declined by fewer than two people over the past decade, from 17.16 employees to 15.28. [/B]And restaurants tend to rely more on labor than other food outlets: According to the National Restaurant Association, dining establishments average $84,000 in sales per worker, compared with $304,000 for grocery stores and $855,000 for gas stations.
Labor isn’t the only ingredient that factors into the price of a Big Mac: There’s also real estate, which has been getting more expensive, especially in the hot urban markets where restaurants are seeking to locate. Wholesale food costs, meanwhile, have escalated 25 percent over the past five years.
The avalanche of rising costs is why franchisers are aggressively looking for technology that can allow them to produce more food faster with higher quality and lower waste. Dave Brewer is chief operating officer with Middleby Corp., which owns dozens of kitchen equipment brands, and is constantly developing new ways to optimize performance and minimize cost.
“The miracle is, the wage increase is driving the interest,” Brewer said. “But the innovation and the automation, they’re going after it even before the wages go up. Why wait?”
[B]All that innovation helps restaurants streamline other parts of their operations — and draw more customers. Electronic menus can be constantly updated so that items that are out of stock can be removed. Connecting the point of the sale to the oven’s operating system allows precise amounts of food to be cooked, which helps cut down on costs. Other inventions save energy, reduce maintenance and better dispose of grease. On the digital side, restaurants are working on apps that include reward systems and location tracking that prompt customers to eat with them more frequently.
It’s possible that new inventions could start to eliminate positions faster than they have in the past.[/B]
The labor-saving technology that has so far been rolled out most extensively — kiosk and •tablet-based ordering — could be used to replace cashiers and the part of the wait staff’s job that involves taking orders and bringing checks. Olive Garden said earlier this year that it would roll out the Ziosk system at all its restaurants, which means that all a server has to do is bring out the food.
Robots can even help cut down on the need for high-skilled workers such as sushi chefs. A number of high-end restaurants use machines for rolling rice out on sheets of nori, a relatively menial task that takes lots of time. Even though sushi chefs tend to make more than $15 an hour, they could be on the chopping block if servers need to make $15 an hour, too.
[B]“For our operation, we’re not buying entry-level labor, but if entry-level labor goes up a huge amount, everything goes up,” said Robert Bleu, the president of True World Group, a seafood distributor and consultant that also owns a sushi restaurant in Chicago. “I don’t consider rice-forming a high art. You can escape some of the drudgery.”[/B]
Of course, it’s possible to imagine all kinds of dramatic productivity enhancements. Persona •Pizzeria’s Miller predicts that drone delivery systems will eventually get rid of the need to come into a restaurant at all, for example. Brewer has a bold prediction: He thinks that all the automation working its way into restaurants could eventually cut staffing levels in half. The remaining employees would just need to learn how to operate the machines and fix things when they break.
[B]“You don’t want a $15-an-hour person doing something that the person who makes $7 an hour can do,” Brewer said. “It’s not downgrading the employees. It’s that the employees become managers of a bunch of different systems. They’ll become smarter and smarter.”[/B][/quote]
[url]http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/capitalbusiness/minimum-wage-offensive-could-speed-arrival-of-robot-powered-restaurants/2015/08/16/35f284ea-3f6f-11e5-8d45-d815146f81fa_story.html?tid=sm_fb[/url]
So, instead of paying the workers a living wage now, we can pay them under a living wage until a time (not much further in the future) when they get replaced anyway..
That's some specious logic.
I know a certain dollar store chain that would love to replace their three cashiers with self checkouts and just plop the manager behind the cigarette and booze counter just to prop up profits even though the stores would be horribly unsafe, horribly loss prone and unkept
[QUOTE=Bradyns;48493163]So, instead of paying the workers a living wage now, we can pay them under a living wage until a time (not much further in the future) when they get replaced anyway..
That's some specious logic.[/QUOTE]
Businesses are in it for the money, not the well-being of those who work for them - especially those on the bottom rung.
Every push for them to pay employees higher will just lead them to find another way to circumvent it.
You know how self checkouts still require an employee to come over and help the person half the time?
That's why I don't see full automation catching on as much as people think it will. Robots are really, really stupid when it comes to dealing with even slightly unexpected situations.
[QUOTE=Helix Snake;48493193]You know how self checkouts still require an employee to come over and help the person half the time?
That's why I don't see full automation catching on as much as people think it will. Robots are really, really stupid when it comes to dealing with even slightly unexpected situations.[/QUOTE]
Full automation? Probably not soon. Most of the workforce automation? It's going to be a thing.
[QUOTE=Helix Snake;48493193]You know how self checkouts still require an employee to come over and help the person half the time?
That's why I don't see full automation catching on as much as people think it will. Robots are really, really stupid when it comes to dealing with even slightly unexpected situations.[/QUOTE]
Yeah but I use my local supermarket as an example you only need one person overlooking 8 self checkouts, 2 if it gets busy. When before you needed one person per checkout.
I'm glad I'm a programmer, the machines cant replace me!
[QUOTE=Helix Snake;48493193]You know how self checkouts still require an employee to come over and help the person half the time?
That's why I don't see full automation catching on as much as people think it will. Robots are really, really stupid when it comes to dealing with even slightly unexpected situations.[/QUOTE]
What about me wanting to check out whiskey at 9 in the morning is unexpected?
[QUOTE=Emperor Scorpious II;48493180]Businesses are in it for the money, not the well-being of those who work for them - especially those on the bottom rung.
Every push for them to pay employees higher will just lead them to find another way to circumvent it.[/QUOTE]
It's why I think the sudden jump to $15/h is a terrible idea. You need to bring it in slowly while also slowly increasing the food cost.
You bring it in like this and all of a sudden expensive automation starts looking economical.
At least I'm going into concept art or industrial design, don't have to worry about a robot replacing me.
[QUOTE=Helix Snake;48493193]You know how self checkouts still require an employee to come over and help the person half the time?
That's why I don't see full automation catching on as much as people think it will. Robots are really, really stupid when it comes to dealing with even slightly unexpected situations.[/QUOTE]
Half the time? Here in Australia the self serve checkouts have one person for 8 checkouts and they mostly just stand around unless they get zerg rushed by old people.
[QUOTE=RainbowStalin;48493254]Yeah but I use my local supermarket as an example you only need one person overlooking 8 self checkouts, 2 if it gets busy. When before you needed one person per checkout.[/QUOTE]
This exactly, most of my local stores have self checkouts accounting for half the tills in the stores. Honestly automation of services has been well underway for a while now and it's only gonna get worse.
Sure it's been posted before cause it's a year old but I honestly find it hard to argue with
[video=youtube;7Pq-S557XQU]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Pq-S557XQU[/video]
The only counter argument is that if you automate all jobs then no one earns money to spend on these services which means everyone losses ... those at the bottom in the immediate future but eventually even those at the top. But weather or not you'll be alive to witness that is another matter.
Thankfully I work in a job that can only be done by people. That is until robots can take care of the disabled and wipe ass lol. Being in human services is great :D
[QUOTE=Fatfatfatty;48493257]I'm glad I'm a programmer, the machines cant replace me![/QUOTE]
For now, that day will come.
[QUOTE=Fatfatfatty;48493257]I'm glad I'm a programmer, the machines cant replace me![/QUOTE]
At least not in our lifetime. Hopefully.
[QUOTE=apierce1289;48493303]Thankfully I work in a job that can only be done by people. That is until robots can take care of the disabled and wipe ass lol. Being in human services is great :D[/QUOTE]
I dunno man, wiping asses doesn't sound too great.
[QUOTE=Helix Snake;48493193]You know how self checkouts still require an employee to come over and help the person half the time?
That's why I don't see full automation catching on as much as people think it will. Robots are really, really stupid when it comes to dealing with even slightly unexpected situations.[/QUOTE]
There will always be a human factor with new technological improvements, but that doesn't mean it has to be as large as before the improvement came.
I'm sure we can see which situation a store would pick out of these:
>10 people working 10 cashiers
>1-2 people working on 10 automated self-check outs
[QUOTE=RainbowStalin;48493254]Yeah but I use my local supermarket as an example you only need one person overlooking 8 self checkouts, 2 if it gets busy. When before you needed one person per checkout.[/QUOTE]
I don't really buy the whole self-serve steals jobs things to be honest. In the past, for the express checkouts, there would always be a queue and they would have to call for assistance from other departments to temporarily open another checkout. With self-serve checkouts they still have the assisted express checkout open, but they then have someone attending the self-serve checkouts, and because of all those checkouts customers can get out smoothly and so the store doesn't need to waste the time of people in other departments answering calls for assistance.
Anyways doubling the minimum wage in a time frame of less than ten years is ridiculous. I can imagine it being reasonable for the US to increase the federal minimum wage to say $8.50 and index it from then onwards. However it could help minimum wage workers a lot more if they didn't have to pay for Social Security or Medicare. Someone on the minimum wage working full-time would be roughly $20 per week better off if they didn't have to pay for those.
[QUOTE=Emperor Scorpious II;48493323]There will always be a human factor with new technological improvements, but that doesn't mean it has to be as large as before the improvement came.
I'm sure we can see which situation a store would pick out of these:
>10 people working 10 cashiers
>1-2 people working on 10 automated self-check outs[/QUOTE]
It's like when people claim factory automation will merely shift job market. As if it will. One factory that replaces 200 workers with 200 machines only needs ~10 people to maintain these machines.
[QUOTE=itisjuly;48493320]I dunno man, wiping asses doesn't sound too great.[/QUOTE]
I'm doing this till I finish nursing school to be a registered nurse. It's not that bad it's worth it when you know people that can't help themselves can live a good life because of you. Plus it's good for my resume.
[QUOTE=Bradyns;48493163]So, instead of paying the workers a living wage now, we can pay them under a living wage until a time (not much further in the future) when they get replaced anyway..
That's some specious logic.[/QUOTE]
Implying people go to school to work at a McDonalds.
[QUOTE=apierce1289;48493303]Thankfully I work in a job that can only be done by people. That is until robots can take care of the disabled and wipe ass lol. Being in human services is great :D[/QUOTE]
The things I've seen *BEEP BOOP blows up*
This is why technology can be very dangerous. Once we'll be completely replaced, shit will go down.
[QUOTE=Emperor Scorpious II;48493323]There will always be a human factor with new technological improvements, but that doesn't mean it has to be as large as before the improvement came.
I'm sure we can see which situation a store would pick out of these:
>10 people working 10 cashiers
>1-2 people working on 10 automated self-check outs[/QUOTE]
Don't pretend that it's so black and white. Stores know that customers like human interaction, and that some people are simply too lazy to scan and bag their items. Also do consider that in either case they would still have roughly the same number of cashiers hired anyways. During off-peak time they'll often have three people - one manning the front desk and selling smokes, one on the express and perhaps a second person assisting the express in the former case and someone in the self-serve area in the latter case. In peak times not even self-serve can control the flow of customers, especially if customers have loads of items, so they still have the additional cashiers brought in.
[QUOTE=SebiWarrior;48493365]This is why technology can be very dangerous. Once we'll be completely replaced, shit will go down.[/QUOTE]
We will never be completely replaced simply because robots can never be as sophisticated as we are. New jobs arise as new technology arise. One great example is the computer industry, which hopefully is self explanatory.
[QUOTE=Timof2009;48493341]Implying people go to school to work at a McDonalds.[/QUOTE]
When does it imply that?
[QUOTE=Timof2009;48493375]We will never be completely replaced simply because robots can never be as sophisticated as we are. New jobs arise as new technology arise. One great example is the computer industry, which hopefully is self explanatory.[/QUOTE]
But it does raise the bar of entry a lot. Education costs a fuckton and poor people are only getting more disadvantaged as time goes on.
[QUOTE=itisjuly;48493330]It's like when people claim factory automation will merely shift job market. As if it will. One factory that replaces 200 workers with 200 machines only needs ~10 people to maintain these machines.[/QUOTE]
Manufacturing industries are becoming unprofitable in the developed world. They are going to die anyways; they've been dying for decades and the developed world has been transitioning towards service industries even before people had personal computers in their homes. The transition towards service industries has opened many new opportunities.
[QUOTE=_Kent_;48493382]When does it imply that?[/QUOTE]
What else can minimum wage imply? one of the reasons we have education systems is so that people don't have to rely on minimum wage jobs for their livelihood. It doesn't take much education to move a box or cook a hamburger, but it does to build a road or manage a business.
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