Technology is taking over and it doesn’t look good for low-wage franchise workers

Low wage jobs make up the bulk of certain franchise sectors, such as pizza delivery person, convenience store clerk, and fast food restaurant workers. Low-wage workers have organized into a group called, “Fight for 15”, which seeks to increase the national minimum wage to a living wage which they determine to be at least $15 per hour. The greatest obstacle facing the minimum wage movement is not resistance from employers, but the technical advancements that are making the demand for many unskilled workers obsolete. Self-serve kiosks, unmanned automobiles, and airborne drones are on the verge of taking over, and potentially putting millions of franchise workers out of work.

McDonald’s has taken the lead in the fast food franchise sector by implementing self-serve kiosks in many of their restaurants. Customers across the US no longer have any human interaction in the food ordering process. Instead, they are presented with a touch screen menu where they can place their order and online with their credit or debit card. Smartphone apps are also in the final stages of completion which will allow a customer to place an order online from home and the food will be waiting for them to be picked up. Eliminating the cashier function could save a McDonald’s franchisee 25% or more in labor costs.

Pizza franchise leader Domino’s will now deliver pizzas to customers within a mile radius of their pizza shops using airborne drones. Your pizza can be ordered from a smartphone app and payment is made online automatically debiting your account. Fully implementing this technology could eliminate the need for thousands of pizza delivery drivers across the nation and once again reducing miles driven and gasoline costs. Online retailer Amazon.com is putting the final touches on their airborne drone delivery system. Amazon Prime Air will deliver your packages, up to a limited weight per delivery, directly to your home or office. This automation will save millions of dollars in delivery costs and reduce delivery truck labor and energy costs.

In what is the most ambitious and advanced technological move to date, online taxi company UBER is in the initial stages of testing a driverless car, thus replacing the need for actual taxi drivers and reducing their labor costs substantially. Most technological giants and venture capitalists are fully invested in the idea or “driverless technology” and feel that it is just a matter of time before actually driving an automobile is a thing of the past.

Sources:

• https://www.amazon.com/Amazon-Prime-Air/b?node=8037720011
• http://bluemaumau.org/dominos_has_already_outperformed_tech_stars_now_pizza_delivery_will_be_robots
• http://www.businessinsider.com/what-self-serve-kiosks-at-mcdonalds-mean-for-cashiers-2015-8