L
et’s be honest: How many of you love to speak with a computer when you call a big corporation? My bet is zero. Gone are the switchboard operators like Lily Tomlin’s character Ernestine on Hee Haw.
The automatic voice is called an Interactive Voice Response (IVA). It’s a necessary evil that we have all become used to. An IVA navigates the caller through a self-service menu to help answer questions. After what seems like an eternity, you may talk with a live person.
Businesses that utilize IVA save money.
Fast food establishments like McDonald’s have found a way to circumvent employees. First, they asked customers to place their orders through kiosks, and now, you can place an order on smartphones using an app.
Payroll is a business’s biggest expense. Therefore, companies will use available technology to replace or reduce hourly employees.
The threat on the horizon to take the place of more employees is Artificial Intelligence or AI.
Thanks to Missouri Jobs with Justice, Missourians will have a chance to ensure another round of workers lose their jobs at the November election.
It has been proven that raising the minimum wage increases inflation and kills jobs. This is not a theory.
This was recently demonstrated after California raised the minimum wage for most restaurant employees to $20 per hour.
Since the wage increase went into effect, California has lost close to 10,000 fast-food jobs. Pizza Hut alone laid off 1,200 delivery drivers.
When business expenses rise due to forced wage increases, companies are forced to raise prices and lay off employees or go out of business.
A Mexican restaurant chain called Rubio’s Coastal Grill announced the closure of 48 locations in California — nearly one-third of its restaurants — after the new minimum wage went into effect.
A report from Business Insider predicts that Californians can expect to pay $200 more a year just for their Starbucks habit.
Another result of raising the minimum wage is — you guessed it — an increase in automation. A restaurant in the Golden State called Cali Express uses robots to fix the French fries and prepare each hamburger.
Minimum wage hikes hurt small, mom-and-pop businesses the most, as they cannot afford to turn to automation.
Due to the wage increase in California, restaurants are experimenting with new ways to take orders at the drive-up window, including using AI and even paying call centers in India to handle orders.
Forced automation reduces entry-level jobs, which are traditionally used by teenagers and young adults to gain experience in the workforce.
In college, I was a delivery driver for Shakespeare’s Pizza in Columbia and worked a semester at Burger King.
After Seattle, Wash., increased its minimum wage to $15 per hour, growth for entry-level jobs stalled and dropped compared to the rest of the state.
There are countries — Iceland, Sweden, Norway, and Switzerland — that get by without minimum wage laws.
Before 1938, the U.S. did not have a minimum wage law. Interestingly, some Progressive economists — as stated in Wikipedia — pushed for minimum wage laws “for the explicit purpose of supporting the “right” sort of semi- and unskilled laborers (read white) while forcing the “wrong” sort (including immigrants, racial minorities, women, and the disabled) out of the labor market and, over the longer term, impeding their ability to thrive and have families.” This coincided with the eugenics movement.
Raising the minimum wage helps some people but hurts many more through lost job opportunities and increased costs. This affects the poor the most, precisely the opposite of what proponents of higher minimum wage laws tell us.
That is why many this fall will vote for a higher minimum wage. They are selfish, believing they will make more money while ignoring those who will lose their jobs or never be hired in the first place and price increases.
There is no such thing as a free lunch, and there is no such thing as a minimum wage that does not hurt people with low incomes.
Do your homework.
