Invisible disasters follow a minimum wage increase

Invisible harmful consequences of the 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, but not quite, idiot-proof. There were no cashiers out front, but a friendly assistant manager came out from behind the counter and talked me through the navigation.

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

Thank God, working people have brave Democrats who protect us from greedy employers. Unfortunately, that requires protecting some of us from employment itself.

It’s a sad story when a young person never gets their first job, never gets a chance to demonstrate a strong work ethic and punctuality. He corrodes the very image of him and often leads to substance abuse and criminal lifestyles. It’s hard on 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 unemployable youth, but it won’t be the cynical progressive politicians. Unemployed and unskilled youth are unlikely to diagnose the cause of their unemployment unless they have majored in economics in college, 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 and unskilled workers, their families and communities. That will be blamed on racism, underfunded public education, or the ever-popular “greedy corporations.”

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

My work took me through Seattle often during that period. In the months after Seattle enacted a steep minimum wage increase, I noticed several small mom-and-pop restaurants had closed. Kiosks are still unable to wash dishes and bus tables.

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

The move to automation, once made, is irreversible. Consider the perks for an owner: no payroll, no social security contributions, no scheduling drama, no training, no slip and falls or back injuries, no embarrassing racial accusations, and no #MeToo sexual harassment claims. The kiosk offers the employer peace of mind, not just financial advantages.

Of course, the remaining back-of-house workers cannot be replaced by a machine. Even.

The Democratic platform advocates raising the current federal minimum wage from $7.25 to $15 an hour. Most Democrats in Congress have committed to the $15 figure, but some have argued for a middle salary of $12 before moving to the highest salary.

Rep. Keith Ellison and Sen. Bernie Sanders introduced legislation to automatically raise the federal minimum wage by that $15, based on growth in the national median wage. Ellison’s bill would also ban the practice of tipping employees below the minimum wage. Sadly, there are already kiosks at restaurant tables, eliminating opportunities for single mothers and college kids.

Even President Donald Trump has said he favors a raise to $10 an hour. So the writing is on the wall. Fast food chain executives aren’t paranoid, just rational. They don’t want to go bankrupt. They don’t want to be fired by shareholders. There will be many more kiosks and many fewer employees.

by Bart Stinson