Meet "McCashier" Your $15.00 Per Hour McDonald's Worker Replacement
Editor’s Note: Successful union activism in support of a $15/hour minimum wage will not only reduce the supply of entry level jobs – it will have a disproportionate negative impact on small businesses. Large corporations will invest directly in – or offer their franchisees access to – specialized automation equipment. Small businesses will not have the same access to capital and technology. Stuck paying workers more than they can afford, they will be forced to raise prices and become even less competitive. Yet another example of how unions and ultra large corporations can have overlapping agendas.
Sure. You can make $15 an hour at McDonald’s, at least in Seattle. You just have to perform better than this machine.
But if you are not more cost effective than that machine, then not only do you not make $15, you do not have a job at all.
That machine is the not so distant replacement for cashiers demanding more and more pay.
A Reddit comment says the cashiers at this McDonald’s were replaced by machines.
Comments indicate the store is the company owned McDonald’s Innovation Center at 1253 N Schmidt Rd, Romeoville, IL 60446, United States.
Any readers care to check that out?
Math, Not Counting Benefits
- For a location open 24 hours: The cost of human cashiers, not counting benefits, $15/hour * 24 hours * 365 days/year = $131,400
- For a location open 6AM to Midnight: $15/hour * 18 hours * 365 = $98,550.
For the machine to be cost effective, all it needs to do is cost less than $100,000 a year to buy and maintain.
By the way, it won’t just be McDonald’s that eliminates cashiers. Expect to see machines like that everywhere. Basic cost-accounting math demands that outcome.
About the Author: Mike Shedlock is the editor of the top-rated global economics blog Mish’s Global Economic Trend Analysis, offering insightful commentary every day of the week. He is also a contributing “professor” on Minyanville, a community site focused on economic and financial education.