The kiosks have been around since about 2007, they also have the advantage of being able to be multilingual. I’d say I’ve seen them more in Europe than the USA. This article predates Covid
A reasonably well off professional being okay with a .25 increase is nice, but now try is as a single mom with three kids. When your entire ‘mad money’ budget is $100/mo for treats and entertainment for the kids, this stuff really matters.
This is completely wrong. A dollar extracted from a customer and given to an employee just shifts consumption from the customer to the employee. In the meantime, you’ll get fewer customers and the people who lose their jobs can not consume as much, and may wind up on government assistance.
There’s no magic pool of unused money this is being funded from. Every dollar in wage the employee spends is a dollar some other employee didn’t get to spend - unless you think fast food places are mostly frequented by the idle rich.
First, as I just showed, demand side economics in this case is bunk. There’s no difference in ‘propensity to spend’ between McDonald’s workers and rheir customers.
Second, characterizing ‘supply side economics’ as the belief that it’s better for the rich to spend money than the poor is a ridiculous caricature. Supply side economics is more about investing in infrastructure, supply improvements or allowing businesses to retain more profit so they can invest it in capital improvements which increase efficiency and wages.
In reality, it’s stupid to talk about ‘supply side’ as being the way to go, OR ‘demand side’ as being the way to go. A healthy economy is one in which everyone is employed and there is a good match between production, investment in the future, and consumption. Sometimes the ‘demand side’ may need shoring up, and other times the ‘supply side’ does.
For example, right now we have a serious supply problem. There is more demand for stuff than there is ability to supply it. The result is inflation and shortages. Inflation is primarily a tax on wages and savings, both of which are declining in real terms right now. If you try to fix this by stimulating demand, you will make the problem worse, not better.
The argument over minimum wage at $15/hr frankly seems more or less irrelevant now. The economy itself is simply pricing entry level service jobs at around that now, without government action. Most entry level service jobs around here are prominently posting signs in that $13-15 range for starting pay. There’s a couple that are still showing signs in the $11-12 range and those are the fast food joints that I’ve seen shut down multiple days a month due to “staff shortages.”
We can speculate on the reasons why, but the $15 wage is more or less here to stay, and has largely happened without Federal minimum wage increases.
Exactly. The current trend is purely market driven because employers have to pay this price point if they want to get employees. Even at this price point they are struggling in fact. This is exactly how the market works. If you can find people willing to work at a lower point then that’s what the market price is. If you can’t, then you either spend the capital to automate, you pay the increased price for labor, or you go without…assuming your business can do that and stay open.
Shoot, I was told that with no minimum wage every worker would be in a race to the bottom of working for 0.0000001¢/hr and that labor wasn’t subjected to the laws of supply and demand.
You appear to be ignoring the fact that such single mother might herself be the beneficiary of a minimum wage that provided a more sustainable living wage instead of supporting corporate greed. I’d also point out that there’s a reason that prepared foods and takeout are taxed, while raw food ingredients are not. In fact, IIRC, there is an extra “convenience tax” on takeout. The message is that if your budget is super tight, convenience foods and takeout junk foods shouldn’t be a priority.
In any event, much of this comes down to beliefs in differing economic theories and, in particular, differing social values. Except in extreme cases, there’s no obvious “right” or “wrong” here. Speaking for myself, I prefer living in a country and a province where the priority is a peaceful, just, and compassionate society, and I prefer to leave experiments with how to optimize corporate profits to other places.
We are running a natural experiment right now in how Capitalism will handle it when there is a labor shortage. Wages are rising, sometimes well above minimum wage.
As we find out the new true costs of labor, then reacting to the new reality of labor costs some sectors will shrink, others will grow depending on the nature of the workforce. More automated businesses will have an advantage. Labor intensive products will cost more relative to mass produced products. Prices will readjust and capital will be invested in new supply until supply matches demand. Then we’ll have stable markets again where prices and goods reflect the underlying reality.
That’s a way better regulatory mechanism when a shock hits the economy than having Joe Biden and a bunch of octogenarian politicians get their cronies together to work a deal.