San Diego raises minimum wage and ties it to inflation

Page 2 - Seeking answers? Join the AnandTech community: where nearly half-a-million members share solutions and discuss the latest tech.

Sattern

Senior member
Jul 20, 2014
330
1
81
Skylercompany.com
Other states should follow this example so mega inflation can occur and end up raising the prices yet again on everyday goods and keep home prices low so I can buy some real estate.
 

Smoblikat

Diamond Member
Nov 19, 2011
5,184
107
106
lol @ #min wage fee. If minimum wage earners don't have the right to an inflation adjustment once a year then businesses don't have the right to raise their prices for making the same product year after year for the same reason.

Sure they do, buisnesses can charge whatever they want for the products they sell. If you dont like their prices....get this.......you dont actually have to buy them! Surprising, I know, but believe it or not there isnt actually anything physically compelling you to pay more for something than you think its worth. Imagine that?
 

Fern

Elite Member
Sep 30, 2003
26,907
173
106
Well, strikes me as an interesting experiment. If SD wants to do this, fine by me. Let's just follow and see how it turns out.

However, my bet is if inflation falls the minimum won't be adjusted downwards.

Fern
 

Spungo

Diamond Member
Jul 22, 2012
3,217
2
81

Genius. If you're going to do something, do it properly. Should we have a minimum wage, yes or no? If no, abolish minimum wage. If yes, have a minimum wage indexed to inflation. The current system is just silly. We make a minimum wage but then we inflate it away so there's effectively no minimum wage.

I would also insist on them using a proper inflation calculation that accurately describes the life of a poor person. Do minimum wage people own ipads? Generally no, so that would have very little weight when calculating inflation. Poor people pay a much higher percentage of their income to rent, food, and utilities, so all of those would have a very strong weighing. Do poor people who own cars spend more money on the car or on the gasoline that goes in the car? Probably more on the gasoline, so that would have more weight than the prices of cars.
 

1prophet

Diamond Member
Aug 17, 2005
5,313
534
126
Keep raising the minimum wage without fixing the underlying causes of the middle class erosion which is the real reason of wage disparity,

and a nice surprise awaits you, especially those that believe fast food is a career deserving high wages.

In recent months, some fast food workers have been staging walkouts, complaining of low pay and a lack of benefits. But a new trend suggests that they may face competition that doesn't care what hours they work, or what they're paid. Fast food chains in Japan, China and Great Britain have begun piloting the use of robots to cook meals. And while robots have been emerging in recent years as a boon for completing menial tasks like dispensing medicines in hospitals, these fast food robots are capable of preparing full sushi rolls or noodle dishes for Asian food outlets. In many cases, customers complete their orders through a touchscreen, which then alerts the robot how to prepare the meal. No humans needed.

It stands to reason that American fast food companies will adopt the robots at some point. One new fast food robot is the noodle-slicing "Chef Cui" in China, which as The Associated Press reports, costs restaurateurs 30,000 Chinese yuan to buy, or about $2,000. Comparatively, a human noodle chef is paid about $4,700 a year in China, according to the AP.
robots-fast-food-435df071613.jpg


For Liu Maohu, a noodle restaurant owner in Beijing, the choice of hiring a robot over a human is easy. "The robot chef can slice noodles better than human chefs," he told the AP. "And it is much cheaper than a real human chef."

This is just the beginning, too. A report by the McKinsey & Company consulting group says that robots will occupy about 1 out of every 8 commercial service jobs by 2025. And for fields like manufacturing, packing, construction and maintenance, the figure is roughly 1 in 4. To reach those numbers, companies will have to invest roughly $1.4 trillion, according to McKinsey.
Robots work on farms: Robots also are being used in the agricultural process. A group of dairy farmers in New York are using European-made robots and putting them to work milking herds. And as the AP recently reported, robots are entering the "last frontier of agricultural mechanization" -- fruit and vegetable field work. Previously, robots were not used for such work, because they weren't sensitive enough to handle the produce, which led to undesired bruising. The new robots, with names such as Lettuce Bot, are now endowed with advanced sensors and high-precision GPS location technologies to ensure the produce isn't damaged.

What will that mean for fast food workers?: In the past year, workers have staged brief walkouts at their jobs in seven U.S. cities, to draw attention to their demand that their wages -- usually close to the federal minimum of $7.25 an hour -- be doubled to $15 an hour. "The saddest thing about this story is that probably 10 years from now robots will replace human beings ... and low-skill workers will have really no place to go," John Curley, a radio host for KIRO in Seattle, said in a recent report about fast food protests that took place in that city.

In an e-mail to AOL Jobs, Hudson Riehle, a senior vice president for the National Restaurant Association wrote robots won't "replace the human factor" in the industry. He said a "personal touch" is "essential" throughout the industry. Indeed, his trade group projects the industry to continue growing over the next decade and add roughly a million new workers by 2023. Currently, there are 13.1 workers in the restaurant industry in America, according to the association.

Yet on his show Curley raised examples where robots were already replacing workers. To back up his claim, he pointed to McDonald's and the Japanese sushi chain, Kura. As he shared on his show, McDonald's just installed 7,000 touch-screens throughout Europe, eliminating the need for workers to take customers' orders. Kura, for its part, has been able to fully eliminate cashiers from their workflow. In their place, the chain has installed scales in their branches that customers use to weigh their food. The customers are then asked to leave the money in a bucket, similar to paying a highway toll.

A San Francisco company, called Momentum Machines, already has created a robotic assembly line that can assemble 360 hamburgers an hour. The company says the device could save fast food outlets $135,000 a year in labor costs, reports Digital Trends.
https://www.google.com/search?q=rob...a6ogTrp4DgBQ&ved=0CAcQ_AUoAg&biw=1024&bih=649

http://jobs.aol.com/articles/2012/12/14/n-y-farmers-robots-illegal-immigrants/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31-uu9XIP0M

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2hxESpio7o
 

master_shake_

Diamond Member
May 22, 2012
6,430
291
121
the wrong people are getting replaced by robots.

middle level and even high level management jobs would be done better by a computer or robot.

seriously who else could sit idle and use less energy a manager or a computer/robot.

they could even program it to send compliments to employees through speakers.

gotta get rid of that middle to top fat and the bottom will be stronger.
 

Matt1970

Lifer
Mar 19, 2007
12,320
3
0
Keep raising the minimum wage without fixing the underlying causes of the middle class erosion which is the real reason of wage disparity,

and a nice surprise awaits you, especially those that believe fast food is a career deserving high wages.

Nobody wants to do the jobs that actually pay worth a damn. The people I work with during the summer when my business dries up all have the same story, they can't get people to show up to work. That work can easily pay twice minimum wage but nobody wants to work outside or get a little bit dirty.
 

alcoholbob

Diamond Member
May 24, 2005
6,271
323
126
Nobody wants to do the jobs that actually pay worth a damn. The people I work with during the summer when my business dries up all have the same story, they can't get people to show up to work. That work can easily pay twice minimum wage but nobody wants to work outside or get a little bit dirty.

What kind of work is this? Public and private union contracted manual labor in many states pay far more than twice the level of minimum wage. Think more like 4 to 6 times minimum wage. If nobody shows it sounds more like the competition is paying more than your business.
 

1prophet

Diamond Member
Aug 17, 2005
5,313
534
126
What kind of work is this? Public and private union contracted manual labor in many states pay far more than twice the level of minimum wage. Think more like 4 to 6 times minimum wage. If nobody shows it sounds more like the competition is paying more than your business.


let's say the minimum wage is $7-8 hour, you're saying manual low/no skill labor is getting $28 to $48 an hour somewhere else and that is why he can't get any help?
 

alcoholbob

Diamond Member
May 24, 2005
6,271
323
126
let's say the minimum wage is $7-8 hour, you're saying manual low/no skill labor is getting $28 to $48 an hour somewhere else and that is why he can't get any help?

I'm not aware of any business that pays much for no-skill labor. Very little manual labor requires no skill, unless his business is digging ditches and then filling them back up.
 

werepossum

Elite Member
Jul 10, 2006
29,873
463
126
Indeed. Just a guess, but that's probably just over a nickel per item. These idiot Owners should just raise the Price ffs and quit being drama queens about it.
Of course, then the living wage must go up since everything costs more. So the minimum wage must go up. Then the idiot Owners should just raise the Price again. Of course, then the living wage . . .

Good for them. I prefer this mechanism moving the federal rate significantly. What works for one area is not going to work for another so I'd prefer the federal rate be close to the lowest common denominator and have locations that can sustain a higher rate do so locally
This, pretty much. I don't think we can just legislate away poverty, but this will help some people and while I doubt it really changes things, I doubt it does much damage either. And as you say, the only way to effectively do this is state by state, with affluent metros raising proportionally. Whether it's minimum wage/price increases, welfare or crime, we're going to pay in the end, as poor people aren't going to simply disappear. For my money, this beats welfare or crime.
 

Zaap

Diamond Member
Jun 12, 2008
7,162
424
126
I have no problem with this. Exactly how it should be done- at a local level, based on local economies. The people of San Diego are free to do whatever they want. Businesses are free to stay or go elsewhere.