Burgerbot: Fast food chains can cut costs by using new technology

Recently, unions have been encouraging fast food workers to hold out for a $15 an hour wage in Chicago and other cities. Proponents have argued that fast food employees deserve more than they have been getting, and that the pay boost will improve the economy. But if they succeed, a different effect could take place: the...

Recently, unions have been encouraging fast food workers to hold out for a $15 an hour wage in Chicago and other cities. Proponents have argued that fast food employees deserve more than they have been getting, and that the pay boost will improve the economy. But if they succeed, a different effect could take place: the accelerated mechanization of restaurants.

There’s already a burger-cooking robot in the works. San Francisco-based Momentum Machines has created Alpha, a robotic hamburger-making machine that the company claims can produce 360 high-quality burgers in an hour with minimal human supervision.

The McDonald’s around the corner from the Illinois Policy Institute’s Chicago office usually has about half a dozen employees working at any given time – more during the lunch rush. I’ve done stints in fast food, and can say that making a decent burger does take a bit of skill, so I would guess that even with the most advanced robotics your average mechanized restaurant – let’s call it Burgerbot – would need a couple of people on staff when the joint is open to make sure the machinery runs smoothly. Those two people would probably be worth $15 an hour – or maybe even more. But that leaves at least half the old staff looking for new jobs.

Momentum says that mechanizing fast food will create opportunities over the long haul, and they are probably right. The unions behind the Fight for 15 campaign may not find the promises of a robot-maker very comforting, but they do not have the power to stop technology from moving forward.

Fast food jobs do not pay well, but for most fast food workers the pay is only part of the equation, and not even necessarily the most important part. Fast food and other entry-level jobs are valuable as a way for inexperienced workers to gain work experience and demonstrate to employers that they are reliable.Most minimum-wage workers are teenagers still living at home. For them, fast food is not a career as much as a rite of passage, a first step on the road to something better.

If the backers of the Fight for 15 get their way, there will be better-paying jobs in fast food but there will be a lot fewer of them. For those who are left behind, they had better hope that the robot-makers are right, and that there will be other jobs opening up for them somewhere else.