No effect: In spite of improvements in technology, minimum wage hikes between 2000 and 2008 caused little immediate displacement of workers by technology.
LOS ANGELES/SAN FRANCISCO: Clamshell grills are making burger flipping obsolete at McDonald’s, Johnny Rockets and other burger chains. Digital kiosks, tabletop tablets and mobile phones are taking orders at eateries like Panera, Chili’s Grill & Bar and Domino’s. And at Silicon Valley start-up Zume, robots are being programmed to take over pizza assembly.
Such labour-saving devices have been held out as counterweights to efforts to raise the wages of the lowest paid workers in the United States. But the early evidence suggests robots and other forms of automation are merely reshaping the work of people in food service. They are not – as they have in banks, on factory floors and in other sectors – replacing them.
