Why The $15 Minimum Wage Doesn't Work.

Historically, skilled laborers would go on strike -- welders, steel workers, mechanics and so on. Now, unskilled workers that flip burgers and work cash registers all day think they should strike, too.

As a follow up to my article yesterday, I want to extrapolate further as to the insane nature of a $15 minimum wage, especially in regard to unskilled service industry workers. The arbitrary nature of such a number ultimately detracts from the economy, causing more unemployment and greater competition between unskilled workers. It's something I've spoke about more than once. A big thank you goes out to my brother James for sharing the following video with me. In this video, Don Boudreaux, a highly-regarded economist at George Mason University, explains the pitfalls of the 'Fight for $15' movement and why such a financial policy simply doesn't work. I encourage you all to watch. You just might learn something.

Waitresses... At McDonald's?

Earlier this month on May 12, I wrote about the forthcoming automation at Wendy's restaurants. This is a cost saving measure to counter the ridiculous demands by employees to be paid $15 an hour. Obviously, if the price of staffing goes up, a business must find a more reasonable method of administering their product to offset the increased overhead expense. Long story short... here come the robots.

Today, McDonald’s Chief Executive Officer Steve Easterbrook spoke to shareholders at the company’s annual meeting. He expanded upon the notion of kiosks and other robotic methods of serving customers, as well as their potential use in the house that Ronald McDonald built. Easterbrook said:

“I don’t see it being a risk to job elimination... Ultimately we’re in the service business. We will always have an important human element.”

Easterbrook further explained that any automation that takes place inside their restaurants would largely result in employees being shifted from the kitchen to the dining room area in a service capacity. Essentially, if you carefully read between the lines, the CEO is forecasting a major shift in what kind of employees will be hired by the company. So, what will that new status be?

They'll be waiters and waitresses. And what do waitresses make per hour? On average, less than $3.

Think about this for a moment. McDonald's employees will no longer flip burgers or bake apple pie crisps. Those jobs will be fully automated by machines. Instead, they'll bring customers more food and water, much like any other sit-down restaurant. As such, those employees will be compensated as waitresses, whom are legally allowed to be paid much less than the standard minimum wage. Customers will then tip these employees, thereby absorbing the increased cost of doing business.

In no simpler set of words, McDonald's shall put the burden onto its customers, at the same time paying less wages to their staff and making more profit. This is a classic win-win scenario.

Mark you calendars, my friends. I'm calling it now. At some point in the near future, you'll see waiters and waitresses at McDonald's.

Wendy's Self-Service Kiosks Signal Bad Times Ahead For Teenage Workers.

The future is here, folks.

Wendy's has announced that they'll be doing a nationwide launch of self-service kiosks in their 6,000+ restaurant locations. Instead of a thirty-something mother of five with a neck tattoo taking your order, a robot will do it with much less complication (and no mistakes).

Executives with Wendy's point to rising wages as the reason for the self-service kiosk expansion. In states like California and New York, the minimum wage has recently gone above ten dollars an hour (with some cities at $15 per hour). Since we've yet to learn how to grow money on trees, the kiosks are a natural alternative for offsetting labor costs. Less employees and more kiosks help Wendy's meet their bottom line and turn a profit. It's as simple as that.

Of course, there's a downside to this whole turn of events. The short-sighted fast-food employees that have been pushing for a $15 minimum wage will soon see themselves without a job at all. For teenagers whom are looking for their first job, they'll now find themselves competing with a computer. Guess who is going to lose 99% of the time.

Idiots like this are why teenagers will soon be competing with robotic self-service kiosks for jobs.

While I'm actually thankful to see a large corporation move towards self-service for order taking (something companies like Sheetz have done successfully for many years), I'm also sad to see the realm of teenage employment shrink even further than it already has. Working at a fast-food restaurant is not a career. It's a pit-stop for young people to learn how to be responsible and earn a paycheck. And yet, fast-food work has been held hostage by grown adults unwilling to do anything else, much less better themselves for more reasonable employment opportunities. These fools have demanded $15 an hour to do menial work meant for young people. You reap what you sow.

I guess you can call this progress?

Why College Athletes Shouldn't Be Paid.

Quite often, I see fans of college sports commenting about student-athletes and the need to provide compensation to them. Essentially, they believe that college athletes should be paid like professional athletes. By all accounts, this seems to be the most popular sentiment among the college sports viewing audience. A continuous yearly survey from Harris Interactive shows that 45% of all Americans watch college sports, chiefly men's basketball and football. The NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association) pulls in nearly $800,000,000 in revenue annually.

I say they're dead wrong. College athletes don't deserve a penny.

But whoa, Jared! These kids play their hearts out. They take bumps and bruises. Plus, they earn the NCAA millions upon millions of dollars. Why shouldn't they get a little piece of the action?

I'll tell you why...

BECAUSE THEY'RE IN COLLEGE TO LEARN AND EARN A HIGHER EDUCATION, YOU OBTUSE FOOL!

When you go to college, the goal is to broaden your mind, take in knowledge and become a smarter, more mature human being. You're not going to college to bounce a ball or throw a piece of leather. Sure, you might participate in a collegiate sport while in attendance at an institution of higher learning; I've got no problem with that. Sports are fun! Personally, I really enjoy baseball and hockey. But, that's not the reason why you're in college. Sports are merely an extracurricular activity, like playing on a chess team or participating in a book club. You don't go to college to become a professional athlete -- there's no class or degree for that.

Here's the other, and perhaps much larger, dilemma. If you decide to pay one set of college athletes, then you legally have to pay all of them. No matter what sport they play or their gender, all student athletes would be required to receive compensation. Whether the men's basketball team or the women's volleyball team, if you pay one, then you have to pay them all -- no exceptions. How does that work? It's simple. If the NCAA and colleges decided to pay their athletes, then those athletes would have to be classified as employees under the institutions they play for. By law, that places them under the jurisdiction of the Equal Pay Act of 1963. This requires that all employed persons be treated equally and fairly by their employers, no matter their gender or position in life. Title IX also enters in the picture, declaring that...

"No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving federal financial assistance."

Essentially, if you have a collegiate sports program, both men and women (and, by proxy, all people whom fall at various points on the gender spectrum) must have equal access and be invited to participate. Even if it's a private college or university that doesn't receive federal assistance, they're still bound to the law under the Equal Pay Act. Though, the reach of Title IX could even be argued in court if a student uses federal aid to attend a private institution... but that's a whole other discussion.

There's just no way around this issue -- Equal Play, Equal Pay.

To put it simply -- all college students get to participate in sports programs. If those students are to be paid, then all sports programs and their players shall receive remuneration.

Therein exists the problem for the NCAA and colleges -- they're fully aware of this issue that I've just described. As much as they might want to pay their college football and men's basketball players, they also know that they'd be forced to pay the men's golf team, the women's lacrosse team, the fencing team, equestrian team, and so on. College football and basketball teams earn the NCAA and colleges millions. On the other hand, college water polo teams (one of many examples) don't earn squat.

But I'm not done yet...

If student athletes were to be classified as employees and receive compensation, there's another law that would drastically change the realm of college sports -- the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. By law, no employer may discriminate in employment against a qualified individual with a disability. Thereby, all students with a disability would have just as much right to play a sport as anyone else and receive the same pay. If a paraplegic wanted to play men's basketball in a wheelchair (and I've seen some awesome guys and gals who play basketball in a wheelchair), the NCAA would have no choice to but to accept that individual and accommodate their disability. What if a blind girl wanted to be on the women's field hockey team? Sign her up! How about a guy with Down's syndrome who wanted to be on the football team? By golly, get that man a helmet and let him play! Personally, I believe there's no reason why any student, no matter their gender or disability, shouldn't already be playing any college sport they choose!

In the end, all of this highlights a much deeper cultural problem with college (and professional) sports. Sports are taken way too seriously. The NCAA rakes in endless piles of cash as a titanic profit machine, fully leveraged on the backs of students -- many whom wouldn't even make it to college based upon their poor scholastic ability.

These are just games being played, folks. One team wins, another loses. Numbers go on a board. Balls are hit. Pucks are slapped. Weights are lifted. That's it. Nothing of real importance is born from a game being played. It's just for fun... but it seems everyone has forgotten that part of the game.

Full disclosure -- I do not watch college sports of any kind, so I have no dog in this fight.