Invisible disasters follow a minimum wage increase




Invisible Harmful Consequences of a High Minimum Wage

Tea kiosk It made its debut at our McDonald’s this week, or at least I saw it and used it for the first time. It’s almost idiot-proof, but not quite. There were no cashiers out front, but a friendly assistant manager came out from behind the counter and told me about boating.

The big bottom line is that McDonald’s and other fast food chains are almost, but not entirely, at the mercy of complacent progressives who force their will to enact a higher minimum wage. It seemed like no more than four or five employees were in charge of the entire operation when we visited during the lunch rush hour.

Thank goodness workers have brave Democrats protecting us from greedy employers. Unfortunately, that requires protecting some of us from employment itself.

It’s a sad story when a young man never gets that first job, never gets a chance to demonstrate a strong work ethic and punctuality. It corrodes their self-image and often leads to substance abuse and criminal lifestyles. It is difficult for families and relationships.

As Allie Beth Stuckey has said, work is not a necessary evil. It is a necessary good. The absence of an honorable job creates a void, and that void will be filled by something. If not crime, maybe political extremism. Or maybe both.

Someone will pay to create a class of unemployed and unemployed youth, but it will not be the progressive political cynics. Unemployed and unskilled youth are unlikely to diagnose the cause of their unemployment unless they have completed college economics at university, and this is the genius of the Democrats’ position.

They will demand and receive lavish praise from recipients of a higher minimum wage, but will never be held accountable for the devastating impact of their legislation on new unskilled workers and their families and communities. That will be attributed to racism, underfunded public education, or the ever-popular “greedy corporations.”

There was a fast food strike in 2012 in New York City, but it had limited traction at the time. I’d say the minimum wage surge started in the progressive districts of the Pacific Northwest a few years later. The electoral initiatives imposed some of the increases in the minimum wage and some were imposed by the municipalities.

My work often took me around Seattle during this period. In the months after Seattle enacted a sharp increase in the minimum wage, I noticed that several small family restaurants had closed. The kiosks are still unable to wash bus dishes and tables.

But on the Silicon Valley coast and elsewhere, smart engineers and coders were devising the technology that would save the restaurant industry from unsustainable high wages. Good for them, good for restaurant owners, disastrous for young, inexperienced workers.

The move to automation, once completed, is irreversible. Consider the advantages for a homeowner: no payroll, no social security contribution, no scheduling hassles, no training, no slip and fall or back injuries, no shameful racial accusations, and no #MeToo sexual harassment claims. The kiosk offers the employer peace of mind, not just financial benefits.

Of course, the workers left in the back of the house cannot be replaced by a machine. Still.

The Democratic platform advocates raising the current federal minimum wage from $ 7.25 to $ 15 per hour. Most Congressional Democrats have pledged to the $ 15 figure, but some have advocated a $ 12 median salary before moving up to the higher salary.

Rep. Keith Ellison and Sen. Bernie Sanders has introduced legislation to automatically increase the federal minimum wage from that $ 15, based on growth in the national median wage. Ellison’s measure would also prohibit the practice of paying employees with tips less than the minimum wage. Unfortunately, kiosks already exist on restaurant tables, eliminating opportunities for single mothers and college students.

Even President Donald Trump has said he favors a raise to $ 10 an hour. So the writing is on the wall. Executives at the fast food chain are not paranoid, just rational. They don’t want to go bankrupt. They don’t want shareholders to fire them. There will be many more kiosks and many fewer employees.

by Bart Stinson

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