I have written about this trend on many occasions for several years: Source: Former McDonald’s CEO warns $15 minimum wage directly contributing to fast-food industry’s automation push | Fox Business

Automation was always going to happen – but the push for higher minimum wages accelerates that trend.

We’ve seen the trend in self service fill-your-own-drinks, self-order entry, and the use of phone apps to place orders. A very few places have experimented with mostly automated services without any visible human interactions.

The push for higher wages occurred as the price of automation went down, and the capabilities of automation have gone up. We will end up with a smaller number of higher paid workers, likely belonging to a union. The workers without jobs will get no union representation, unfortunately.

Coldstreams