Fast Food Labor Strike

[imanihonjin]

If I were an owner operator of one of these stores I would be holding a job fair in my store today.

http://www.latimes.com/business/mone...,5191267.story

[Indy Coug]

Having made at or near minimum wage for the first several years of my working career, I can sympathize, but it was also the impetus for me to acquire a broader skill set that would allow me to make a lot more than minimum wage.

[The_Douger]

Having made at or near minimum wage for the first several years of my working career, I can sympathize, but it was also the impetus for me to acquire a broader skill set that would allow me to make a lot more than minimum wage.

Many people don't do that, though. They just want to be paid more for their poor/unmarketable skillset.

[Moliere]

A wage increase would be great for Americans as it would increase the cost of fast food, this pushing people to healthier alternatives (which are currently more expensive than junk food) and making Americans healthier overall. Unfortunately for the strikers it would result in a reduction of jobs in their sector and they'd have to find some other unskilled profession for their income.

[San Juan Sun]

Derrick Langley, 27, stood in front of the chanting crowds, pointing to scars on his arms that he said came from cleaning the grill in the KFC restaurant where he works; he also has a second-degree burn on his right foot, he said.

[Omaha 680]

I never want to own a business that employs unskilled labor.

[Uncle Ted]

Time to replace fast food workers with robots...

Robots Could Take Over Fast Food Jobs

In recent months, some fast food workers have been staging walkouts, complaining of low pay and a lack of benefits. But a new trend suggests that they may face competition that doesn't care what hours they work, or what they're paid. Fast food chains in Japan, China and Great Britain have begun piloting the use of robots to cook meals. And while robots have been emerging in recent years as a boon for completing menial tasks like dispensing medicines in hospitals, these fast food robots are capable of preparing full sushi rolls or noodle dishes for Asian food outlets. In many cases, customers complete their orders through a touchscreen, which then alerts the robot how to prepare the meal. No humans needed.
[...]

A San Francisco company, called Momentum Machines, already has created a robotic assembly line that can assemble 360 hamburgers an hour. The company says the device could save fast food outlets $135,000 a year in labor costs, reports Digital Trends.

http://jobs.aol.com/articles/2013/07...ast-food-jobs/

[imanihonjin]

Time to replace fast food workers with robots...


http://jobs.aol.com/articles/2013/07...ast-food-jobs/

Seems like a perfect time to demand wage increases.

[Color Me Badd Fan]

Time to replace fast food workers with robots...


http://jobs.aol.com/articles/2013/07...ast-food-jobs/

Robot my ass. That guy just made a simple contraption that slices off noodles and nothing else. The machine's one motion does, however, appear to perhaps have other uses.

[Uncle Ted]

Robot my ass. That guy just made a simple contraption that slices off noodles and nothing else. The machine's one motion does, however, appear to perhaps have other uses.

I, for one, welcome our new robot overlords...

[SCcoug]

Automated cashiers are already here at some fast food places.

[Sizzle]

Having made at or near minimum wage for the first several years of my working career, I can sympathize, but it was also the impetus for me to acquire a broader skill set that would allow me to make a lot more than minimum wage.

This. The reason I make more in an hour than you (not Indy, but minimum wage FF worker) do all shift is I have acquired skills and knowledge that provide greater value than flipping a burger.

At $7.50 an hour, if argue they're probably already overpaid.

[imanihonjin]

Automated cashiers are already here at some fast food places.

The really sad part about this is that more often than not I would prefer to deal with an automated machine than a fast food cashier.

[wuapinmon]

Our experiences color our reactions to policy. Sociology tries to give us data so that we don't have to rely on anecdotes or generalizations about an issue. With data, policy becomes informed policy. Interpreting data isn't easy though, and stuff can be spun however we want to. I'm more sympathetic to fast food workers' plight because I worked for McDonald's for five years and Pizza Hut for six years while I was getting educated. I understand, very well, what kind of people work at those places.

There are people in this world so cripplingly unintelligent that that kind of unskilled work is about all that they're ever going to master. They don't have the reasoning skills to make sound life choices. You can't educate everyone into prosperity. The question before policymakers, really, is how do you help people who are just too dumb to get promoted into management not starve or become a burden on the State while they're trying to work for a living? Should a living wage be a right? Will inflation crush any attempts to raise the lowest level of wages? How has the minimum wage kept pace with inflation since its creation?

One thing I have learned in life is that people in dire straits often didn't get there because they were making correct decisions. This is America; we have people in abject poverty amid a sea of material wealth and prosperity. Something about that just doesn't seem right.

[Indy Coug]

Will inflation crush any attempts to raise the lowest level of wages? How has the minimum wage kept pace with inflation since its creation?

See page 2: http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R42973.pdf

Minimum wage will never go away, so the "market purists" can just drop the nonsense about free markets and paying what the market will bear for unskilled labor. Since Congress will continue to increase minimum wages in the future the least we can do is index minimum wages and allow annual adjustments rather than the current practice of doing it every 5 to 10 years and shocking the system that can't sufficiently anticipate the timing and magnitude of the changes.