Gosh, I don't know how anyone could have seen this coming. In a million years, who woulda guessed it??
You mean to tell me that instead of happily overpaying their employees, fast food restaurants in California are just mass-firing them and replacing them with machines?
California is slowly but surely making low-skill workers unemployable. Restaurants need to make money, so they're doing what they have to do.
The move to making customers place orders at digital kiosks alleviates what owners say is the financial strain of rising labor costs after the minimum wage for the state's fast food workers increased on April 1 from $16 to $20 per hour.
Harsh Ghai, a Burger King franchise owner who manages 140 outlets along the West Coast, is leading the transition to automation. He plans to introduce digital kiosks across all his restaurants within months — a drastic acceleration from his original timeline of five to 10 years.
Yeah, so we've basically killed the transition period when these machines would take people's jobs slowly. Now you're going to have many thousands of people let go all at once.
Pro tip for the politicians who failed econ: The REAL minimum wage is always ZERO.
Rather than make less money, restaurant owners are exploring alternative strategies to maintain profitability. Reducing staff numbers appears to be their primary solution for lowering overheads.
The layoffs present a stark reality for employees and their unions, who have long advocated for wage increments.
Workers at well-known chains such as Pizza Hut and Round Table pizza restaurants have also felt the impact, with job losses reported following statements from management about the unsustainable nature of the new wage costs. Meanwhile, major fast food players including McDonald's, Chipotle, and Starbucks have signaled intentions to offset the increased expenses by raising prices.
Say goodbye to cashiers. Say goodbye to indoor dining in many places (who wants to pay someone to clean a dining room?).
None of this is surprising.
But, hey, it's California. I guess they don't care about the consequences.
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