McDonald’s Reacts To $15 Minimum Wage, Announce All U.S. Stores To Be Automated

What did they think would happen? I don't understand how so many places think this is a good idea. I can see it in high-cost cities like New York or San Francisco. But for the whole state? Some of those places in the boondocks don't have an employee in the whole place that makes over $15 an hour, and that greatly throws off the local balance. Your $2 burger at the mom and pop store on Main Street just went up to $6.

Not to mention, I'd be pretty pissed if I was making like $15.50 and the minimum wage got raised, but mine didn't. It seems a lot of companies do raise other wages when that happens, but I'm sure some still don't. You instantly went from like the bottom qualifier for "lower middle class" to "entry-level" or "convicted felon" poor.

Our state is doing it in a "stepped" system. Based on population , for instance: Portland 15/hr, Medford 14/hr, Grants Pass 13.50/hr. A complicated system for something that will fail, if you ask me.
I already do not buy fast food because of the price. I mean, paying 10 bucks for a burger and fries? BS! Now it'll be 13 bucks for less burger and fries. When these feel good laws get passed, unforeseen consequences are not taken into consideration at all. Be prepared for robotic chefs, self check-outs, high prices, remote hospitality, etc. Once those jobs are gone, they won't be coming back.

A stepped system like that is sure to just be full of loopholes. "Well even though our main office is in Portland, if we use our smaller office in Grants Pass (or out of state) as the address on the tax forms..."
A lot of policies like this really don't look at the big picture of everything. People aren't just going to say, "Oh, sure! We'll just double everyone's wage so everyone gets a shot at the American dream! No problem!... so who's paying for it?"

Then when the smaller companies get put out of business because they can't afford it, the liberals that voted to pass the policy are going to be crying that big box stores and large corporations are eating up all of the local businesses.
And we can't forget that really all we're doing is just giving inflation an extra boost, because the price of everything else will follow. Businesses need to charge more for goods and services to support the wage hike.

I'm all for adjusting minimum wage to keep up with inflation, but $15 is ridiculous.

People in cities don't give two shitz about anything going on in the countryside. Two sets of laws might work.
The way it is now, I have to try to live my life by rules that should only apply in Portland. Life up there, is another world than life down here.
But then there will always be the crybabies complaining about double standards and lack of equality.

I went into one of those "Create your Taste" McD the other day. Used the kiosk and I guess it was supposed to print out a receipt with your order # on it. No receipt. I figured there was a missing step so I had to pull someone up to the counter to figure out what was going on anyway.

It's painful to watch people at the grocery try to navigate the self serve checkout and all they have to do is scan items. McDonald's is going to need a really well made ordering system if they think it can replace a cashier.

I tried the ones at Walmart when they first started them but gave up after about two tries. Plus they don't pay me to check groceries. What's next, I have to mop their floors for them to "keep costs down?" Gimme a friggin break.

Exactly. On the last two posts. Also, the disconnect from the human factor is going to end up biting society in the ass.

Must be using the self-checkouts wrong. I cringe when I see TWO people using a self-checkout, and can't figure out how to input the number for the bananas they want to purchase.

As for the human factor, unless she's cute, or very efficient (cute and efficient is rare in a cashier) I will ALWAYS go for a self-checkout/fastlane. Unless it's my weekly buy of mass amounts to feed my family for the week. Then I have no choice to use the peons.

It sounds as if you prefer to be among your own kind.

"In the future, wars no longer exist, but there is Rollerball performance art at McDonald's!!"

Those remedial jobs are the bottom rung of the ladder. Remove that bottom rung and the second step up becomes the bottom rung.

Right, but this only works under the (very bold) assumption that companies are there to treat and pay the workers fairly. We all know that isn't how things really work. They're going to see the bare minimum they can pay without losing their staff, and that may or may not reflect the inflation change from the raised minimum wage. I'm more keen to think "may not" is more accurate.

I don't know about progressive. I do know that you can't eliminate the bottom. So long as there's a top, there's going to be a bottom.

I work in the point-of-sale industry so I see the technology side down to the store implementation. I've also been one of the people that has to train the cashiers, install the equipment, etc..

If a store has fastlanes, get me in there. I'd prefer to only deal with the cashier (or attendant) in the event something goes wrong. AND...I find for small purchases, I can zip through a fastlane much faster than a regular lane. Plus, I don't have to deal with teenagers that really could give two shits, think their lives suck, etc..

I'm sure economic disaster was predicted when "we" decided to do away with child labor, allow trade unions, do away with 70 hour work weeks, and have any kind of minimum wage. In the grand scheme of things, these are all relatively recent developments. Hell, for that matter, it's a relatively recent development that "we" have machines that can do more than human and equestrian (and yakkian) muscles (and brains).
At some point a little more may become too much, but is this it?

Oh, I'll take speedy check-out any time I can. That said, I've learned to relax and even shoot the shit a little if I'm stuck in line.

Same here, especially during the holiday rush. It's the only way to maintain sanity.

http://tinyurl.com/h49dhwb

Trump names fast-food owner Andrew Puzder as Labor Sec. Can haz friez with that?