Bill Gates once told a MSNBC host, “If you raise the minimum wage, you’re encouraging labor substitution, and you’re going to go buy machines and automate things — or cause jobs to appear outside of that jurisdiction. And so within certain limits, you know, it does cause job destruction.”
Gate’s response is honest, practical and—perhaps most importantly—looks to the future. Today’s technological advancements allow major corporations a more affordable alternative to higher minimum wage laws—replace employees with computers. McDonald’s chose to deal with France’s recent government-mandated wage increases by replacing humans with 7,000 touch-screen cashiers.
A company called Savioke is making waves in its contribution to the growing trend toward keeping costs down via automated alternatives. The company developed a Jetson-esque robot capable of robotic room service. The robot’s name is “Botlr” and it has already landed a lucrative deal with one major hotel chain, Starwood Hotels.
Botlr isn’t alone. Researchers at Carnegie-Mellon are developing a robot named “HERB” (Home-Exploring Robot Butler). HERB is learning to do menial labor chores including to “retrieve and deliver objects, prepare simple meals and empty a grocery bag.” Xenex, a virus-killing robot, is already being used in hospitals to disinfect rooms through the use of “sensors to determine room size, a factor in how long to deliver the lethal ultraviolet rays needed to disinfect the room.” And, at a North Carolina State University library, a “Bookbot” is retrieving books.
A recent study conducted at Oxford University reached a rather disturbing conclusion for the future of jobs in the United States. Researchers found that about “47% of total U.S. employment is in the “high risk” category of being automated–meaning these gigs are likely to be automated in the next decade or two.” Jobs most likely to be impacted are those in “transportation and logistics, office and administrative support or a production-related area” and in the service industry, minimum wage service gigs are at high risk of being automated.
As Gates points out, higher minimum wage laws only promise to exaggerate the loss of minimum wage jobs to automated alternatives. Darren Tristano, a restaurant industry consultant for Technomic, told USA today, that the “the fear of a $15 minimum wage and increased customer expectations are pushing food service companies to adopt tablets for ordering and computerized systems for kitchens and inventory.” For these businesses, it is “not just to save money today, but to maintain savings over time.”
So, what does it all mean for SeaTac and Seattle’s low-skilled job market given $15 minimum wage laws? The future, of course, is unclear. However, given expert opinion and the steps companies have already taken to minimize long-term cost through new technology, a $15 minimum wage certainly will not help the chances of low-skilled jobs sticking around.
You can check out Botlr hard at work in a video posted on YouTube below.
So, what does it all mean for SeaTac and Seattle’s low-skilled job market given $15 minimum wage laws? The future, of course, is unclear.
And predictions of doom from raising our local minimum wages just haven’t come true.
From the 1998 Voter’s Pamphlet:
To help small businesses continue to offer good opportunities for young people and to keep prices from rising out of control, vote no on I-688.
(Emphases in the original.)
Despite this bold and clear prediction, I-688 passed, with two-thirds of the vote. Every year since, Washington state’s minimum wage has risen, becoming the highest of any state. What has been the result?
Meanwhile job growth continued at an average 0.8 percent annual pace, 0.3 percentage point above the national rate. Payrolls at Washington’s restaurants and bars, portrayed as particularly vulnerable to higher wage costs, expanded by 21 percent. Poverty has trailed the U.S. level for at least seven years.
Prior to Sea-Tac’s voters raising the minimum wage to $15/hour, businesses there predicted it would reduce employment:
Scott Ostrander, former general manager of the Cedarbrook Lodge in SeaTac, said before the law was passed he would close several rooms in his hotel to avoid having to comply.
What has actually happened?
However Cedarbrook Lodge is now moving forward with a 63-room expansion and recently started paying the $15 per hour minimum wage.
Prior to Seattle City Council’s vote to raise our minimum wage to $15/hour, Andrew Friedman, owner of the Liberty Bar on Seattle’s Capitol Hill, warned unequivocally the higher minimum wage would do economic harm:
Ask your local coffee-shop owner about their costs. Ask the owner of the card store or the shoe store. Find out the facts before you make your decision, because I believe that when you find out the truth, you’ll start to question the propaganda of the 15 Now camp. You’ll start to be suspicious of their talking points, and you’ll demand that they consider these verifiable facts before they saddle all of us with this ill-considered “solution.” Think about it. You can accuse me of lying because you don’t know me, but when your local business owners, one after another, confirm my information, perhaps then you’ll start to ask questions instead of just absorb propaganda. Local independent businesses WILL close, many of your neighbors WILL be out of work. Just ask around.
What has Mr. Friedman actually done, in the wake of our Council’s vote to raise our city’s minimum wage to $15/hour?
After two years of battling red tape — and the city’s move to a $15 minimum wage — Andrew Friedman quietly opened his Good Citizen bar Friday night.
Luckily, opponents of raising the minimum wage will always have “expert opinion” on their side. Too bad that can’t actually compensate for a total lack of real facts, eh?
Smoke and mirrors.
When confronted with the actual performance of our economy, you literally have nothing to say. Nothing. Good luck beating something with nothing; it just worked so well to stop all previous increases in our minimum wage, didn’t it?
Okay, keep going with yourself of the smoke and mirror that your Daddy is showing you.
Okay tensor, here is the deal. If you feel that I am beating something with nothing, please explain this to me and perhaps I will understand your reasoning, and I will have a better chance to believe what Bloomberg says. If you will explain this for me and makes real world sense I promise you I will agree with 100% that you say and will say in the future. I will give you my word.
.
If WA State is more prosperous than any other States, poverty level is low, and businesses are fluorishing, explain to me why is the State always broke and keep increasing taxes and still the 150 plus government agencies are still not fully funded including the schools.
.
I would think that if a State is doing so well, taxes would go down some, because more businesses would be in WA and pay more taxes, more people would be working and pay taxes, more people would be out and buy things and pay taxes, less welfare receipients less mone the government gives for free. Why in the world WA is still increasing taxes? Cannot keep schools funded, cannot keep one of the 150 plus government department, known as the Transportation cannot stay afloat and cut services. I used the transportation and schools just to mention a few.
.
Please explain to me why is the government syphoning you to death on taxes and still in debt. If you come up with a reasonable answer I will promise to say that Bloomberg and whatever you say is golden and correct.
…I will have a better chance to believe what Bloomberg says.
I couldn’t possibly care less if you believe it or not. Watching you twist and flail, doing everything you possibly can to avoid admitting your dire predictions are mere empty words, has been deeply amusing, but you’ve long since made it clear you’ve got nothing. That’s your problem, not mine.
If WA State is more prosperous than any other States, poverty level is low, and businesses are fluorishing, explain to me why is the State always broke and keep increasing taxes and still the 150 plus government agencies are still not fully funded including the schools.
FIrst, the state is not “broke,” as even this site has admitted. Second, we have a major political party which yells the slogan, “Fund Education First,” but actually spends time trying to move more money into transportation, so it can spend three-quarters of a billion dollars on a freeway in Spokane which nobody needs. They also won’t help fix our state’s regressive tax system.
Please explain to me why is the government syphoning you to death on taxes and still in debt.
Washington state is doing neither. You’re saying it does means nothing — just like all of your other pronouncements on economics. Once again, when you can explain how Washington state’s high minimum wage co-relates to our high growth rate, low unemployment rate, and low poverty rate, then maybe someone might listen to your other claims about economics. Until then, you’ve got nothing.
Okay, you had good points. Now I say that all you say it is truth. I believe that your State is far prosperous than any other States. Low and behold the Liberal State is the one most prosperous.
.
You see, I am a man of my word. You know the government mismanage the budget and that is why a State cannot function well. Honestly, all States mismanage some more than others.
.
If you and the rest knows the problem is with thepoliticians, perhaps it is time to get away with the 2 political party system and vote for the less known in the State where corporations don’t own them. Whether you agree or not but both REP and DEM bosses are corporations. They will say one thing and do another as you just mention about the education system.
.
This is why I don’t affiliate or vote for the2 party system. We the people forgot to keep the powerful politicians in check. I believe that our country can do without the REP and DEM now is a matter to disengage the 89% herd that just follow the REP and DEM shephards. This is why I call the 89% sheep because they protect their political party views but are blind of the actual facts of these politicians that are destroying our Country.
.
Look at that and you thought I would never admit that you were right. Now you know. I may come to people as unreasonable or far fetched, but I will admit if a person is correct on their comments. I hope that we have a better relationship and dialogue here and anywhere we meet. Later.
SIncerely,
Benjamin
You are so full of Bull$hit. Given an opportunity to prove your worth, you come up empty. You can’t stop taxing because it’s not in you to stop. What a weak person you are.
Given an opportunity to prove your worth, you come up empty.
That’s rich, coming from someone whose responses to hard economic data consists of nothing but puerile attempts at insult. How about you “prove your worth” by explaining how our state’s high minimum wage fits together with our low rates of unemployment and poverty?
So, now what? I gave you the answer that you wanted. How come you are not replying?
.
Figures, you are another stattering and muttering person that stops communicating once they get the answer they want.
Smoke and mirrors.
A full time job is now 36 hours on the books to combat obamacare, an entry level job for teenagers has become one of 2 part time job for adults in this country. It’s inevitable that as the minimum wage increases, business’s will make adjustments to cut costs & labor will be effected both short term & long term.
It’s inevitable that as the minimum wage increases, business’s will make adjustments to cut costs & labor will be effected both short term & long term.
After fifteen consecutive annual raises in Washington state’s minimum wage, it is the highest of any of the fifty states. What has been the effect on labor here?
Meanwhile job growth continued at an average 0.8 percent annual pace, 0.3 percentage point above the national rate. Payrolls at Washington’s restaurants and bars, portrayed as particularly vulnerable to higher wage costs, expanded by 21 percent. Poverty has trailed the U.S. level for at least seven years.
That sounds acceptable to me. Please let us know what problem(s) you may have with our superior rate of job growth, overall large payroll increases, lower rate of inflation, and lower poverty rate.
Without knowing, I will assume you did not sign up for a business 101 elective in college, have not owned a business & that you have worked for a company all of your life. Now don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong with that, without qualified workers, a business cannot flourish and grow. But the issue here is a Company is in the business to make money plain & simple. When expenses exceed production, something’s got to give & only the individual company’s spread sheet will determine how that’s going to happen, not a generalized government document. The biggest cost to a company is its employees and like it or not, it’s where costs are cut in hours, payroll & benifits. I’m not saying it’s nice, I’m saying its true.
He’s just a communist who thinks all businesses are evil and if everything was run by the state, it would be a collective utopia. Everybody (except the elite, of course) would be paid the same, wear the same gray clothes while riding the bus to the Ministry of Whatever. It hasn’t worked in the past, but this time it’s different.
Classic, i don’t even think there is a He or She in the one size fits all of the Tensor world.
Have you any explanation for why the opponents of I-688 were all dead flat wrong in their predictions? If not, I really don’t see the point of your trying to explain anything else about economics.
Go easy, you’re starting to use big words like “economics”, if you start chewing gum at the same time you might run into the screen door on your moms back porch on your way to work.
Zzzzzz
Zzzzzz
Define better than the national average. Washington state is in the top 5 for the states that are killing off the middle class, that really doesn’t sound like a good thing.
Define better than the national average.
Uh, in the case of unemployment rates, it means Washington state’s unemployment rate was lower than the national average. (Unless you believe having more people out of work is better, of course.) Ditto for the poverty rate. In the case of economic growth, it means Washington state’s rate is higher than the national average. All three of these things have been true for most of the years since we voters enacted I-688.
Washington state is in the top 5 for the states that are killing off the middle class, that really doesn’t sound like a good thing.
Define “top 5” and “killing off the middle class,” or it really doesn’t sound like anything.
@disqus_dDbjojAOzv:disqus do you think that Bill Gates might be right about replacing people for machines? Just wanted to hear your thoughts.
It’s very effortless too find out any matter on net as compared to textbooks,
as I found this paragraph at this website.
This design is spectacular! You most certainly know how to keep a reader
entertained. Between your wit and your videos, I was almost moved to start my own blog (well, almost…HaHa!) Great
job. I really loved what you had to say, and more than that, how you presented it.
Too cool!
Awesome! Its in fact awesome article, I have got much clear idea on the topic of from this post.
https://buyneurontine.com/ – whats gabapentin
I think that what you composed made a ton of sense.
However, consider this, suppose you typed a catchier
post title? I ain’t saying your content isn’t good, but what if you
added a headline that grabbed folk’s attention? I mean Will minimum
wage jobs be replaced by… robots? | Shift Washington is
a little plain. You ought to glance at Yahoo’s front page and see how they create news titles to grab viewers to click.
You might add a video or a pic or two to get readers excited about
what you’ve got to say. Just my opinion, it might bring your website
a little livelier.
Simply want to say your article is as surprising. The clarity on your put up is simply cool and that i can assume you are a
professional on this subject. Well together with your
permission allow me to snatch your RSS feed to keep up to
date with impending post. Thank you one million and please continue the gratifying work.
Hi, I do think this is a great blog. I stumbledupon it 😉 I’m going to return yet again since I saved as a favorite it.
Money and freedom is the greatest way to change, may you be rich and continue to help others.
This is why; shoppers respect and advocate us as one of the Best Search Engine Optimization Company.
Here is my website – seo courses sri lanka
Hi friends, good piece of writing and good urging commented here, I am truly enjoying by these.
Hey I know this is off topic but I was wondering if you knew of any widgets I could add to my blog
that automatically tweet my newest twitter updates. I’ve been looking
for a plug-in like this for quite some time and was
hoping maybe you would have some experience with something like this.
Please let me know if you run into anything.
I truly enjoy reading your blog and I look forward to your new updates.
Have you ever considered creating an ebook or guest authoring
on other websites? I have a blog centered on the
same topics you discuss and would really like to have you share some
stories/information. I know my subscribers would appreciate your work.
If you are even remotely interested, feel free to send me
an e mail.