Wendy's plans to replace workers with self-service kiosks that won't demand $15 an hour

[Dave]

In a move that more and more businesses will go to, Wendy's is looking to put kiosk in restaurants that customers can order and pay from. While I'm sure there will still be a human around to assist, instead of needing 4 or 5, 1 person can will be able to handle the job. Beginning to think the people demanding the $15 an hour wage might want to look into getting trained for repairing kiosk so they can have a better paying job when they get canned from their fast food job. It could get worse for those people even.. in Japan, they have a KFC that has no humans working there, its completely automated.

Tuesday, May 17, 2016 09:04AM

Wendy's is getting ready to change the fast-food industry. The fast-food giant plans to install self-service kiosks at its restaurants because of growing labor costs linked to minimum-wage increases. California and New York are both raising minimum wages to $15 per hour over the next several years and fast-food workers in other states are pushing for similar wages.

The fast-food giant says plans to start installing the kiosks by the end of the year. They will be in company owned outlets but individual franchisees will decide on their own whether to invest in the kiosks. There are more than 6,000 Wendy's but the majority of them are owned by franchisees.

In addition to using the technology to cut down on labor costs, Wendy's President Todd Penegor noted on the company's quarterly conference call, that some of its franchise locations have been raising prices to offset the minimum-wage increase, according to Investor's Business Daily.

In addition to the self-serve kiosks, Wendy's is also getting ready to begin mobile ordering and mobile payments.

http://abc7news.com/business/wendys-plans-to-replace-workers-with-s...

[Willy]

Another big problem with a $15 per hour minimum wage is the increase in illegals. $15 per hour is a gold mine for them. McDonald's is also experimenting with kiosks in Europe. It's already here in the U.S. I've seen them in Michigan Mcdonalds. The head man at Mcdonalds is pushing to replace many of it's workers.

[AQUAMAN]

Thanks for the update on this subject Dave, it's been in and out of the news for several months now. I guess all too many people don't realize that fast food entry jobs weren't intended to be a life-long career to start with, unless you were mgmt. bound and college educated. At $15/hr. minimum wage and no automation, we would probably have no value/combo meals available for less than $12/meal. How many are going to buy that price over another restaurant? The argument of a "living wage for all" simply isn't accurate, esp. for part-time employees. What was supposed to be a good idea for the poor, only puts even more employees out of work into the future, sad.