Every job has a limit on what a business is willing to pay someone to do a particular job. I would argue that there are two prevailing factors which determine that. One being supply and demand, the supply of computer engineers is less than that of people who can flip burgers for example. Second, and likely the more important factor, the profit margin of the business. Clearly a McDonald’s franchise location cannot pay their Fry Guy the same as a professional athlete.
There’s been a fair bit of discussion on the labor shortage and the reasons for it. Be that as it may for all businesses there are limits on what they are willing to pay their labor. So it looks like restaurants are turning more to technology:
Some have been viewing the labor shortage as a good thing for workers viewing this as laborers having the upper hand, well you know the old saying careful what you wish for.
Isn’t this even more justification as to why we need a better immigration system? We should import more labor to help with the shortage and keep wages from skyrocketing
This has been a longtime coming. McDonalds has been using self order kiosk for years now. It was only a matter of time before the rest of the industry followed suit.
Exploited illegals? Is it better if they are legally exploited? They work for those wages because they are illegal, make them legal and they won’t take them either. Unless you restrict them to that job.
In the economic reality there’s a limit of what a restaurant, especially fast food, can pay their staff. Does a restaurant really need someone to take a person’s order? How much time does that take? Put the appropriate technology at every table and cut your wait staff in half if not more.
Lately it’s been prisoners. Due to a lot of immigration policies, we have fewer migrant laborers working on farms. And Americans don’t want those jobs, so farmers are increasingly relying on convict leasing for their labor.
