Former McDonalds CEO predicts $15 minimum wage will fuel shift to robotic workforce

Speaking to a business channel, former McDonalds CEO Ed Rensi declared that an increase in the American minimum wage will spark a robotic revolution. Rensi predicted that a $15 an hour minimum wage would cause "job loss like you can't believe" as it would significantly accelerate the trend towards automation as he guesstimates it makes a lot more sense for fast food chains to buy a $35,000 robotic arm than to pay someone $15 an hour to do the same work:

In an appearance on Fox Business' Mornings with Maria, Ed Rensi claimed that a minimum wage increase to $15 an hour would result in "job loss like you can't believe" before ceding ground to our new robotic overlords. "I was at the National Restaurant Show yesterday, and if you look at the robotic devices that are coming into the restaurant industry—it’s cheaper to buy a $35,000 robotic arm than it is to hire an employee who’s inefficient making $15 an hour bagging French fries."

I couldn't find details about the robot Rensi was talking about but there are many videos on YouTube of fast food robots, here's one from two years ago:



Further details can be read at ARS Technica. A great mini-documentary illustrating the potential problems by the new wave of automation is Humans Need Not Apply: