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frojack [soylentnews.org] writes:

The burger flipping jobs that everybody denigrates may be on the way out. Some of course are happy to see them go, but more than a few teenagers may have one less option to earn their spending cash.

Automation may be paring one more more person from each McDonalds counter. The already highly optimized burger company may be looking to dispense their "Premium" McCafe espresso with an automated self serve stations [brandeating.com] in the seating area. The stations take credit cards as well as payment by NFC smartphones, and have no cash handling capabilities.

Some claim this is a direct response to the drive for minimum wage hikes [zerohedge.com] gathering steam across the nation. [usatoday.com]

The company promised last June [mcdonalds.com] that the average wage in company stores nation wide would be $10/hr, -OR- One Dollar above the locally mandated minimum wage. While this minimum wage trend may make the automation more cost effective, others say the automation was inevitable on any low margin, high volume business.

Note:
This is in addition to several dozen Create Your Taste [yesmcd.com] automated McDonalds restaurants opening across the country.

Will the removal of low paying jobs by arbitrarily pricing them above the cost of automation ultimately serve as a boon to society?

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