'Progressive economics strikes again!' Wendy's proves that the real minimum wage is actually $0.00

Greg P. | 10:04 AM on May 12, 2016

Nobody is gonna pay $15/hr to push buttons with pictures of hamburgers. Progressive economics strikes again! https://t.co/kf1IDjw21G

— ?rockmom ? (@rockmom) May 11, 2016

Remember when conservatives dared to suggest that raising the minimum wage for fast-food workers to $15.00/hour would force businesses to cut staff and would hasten the replacement of those workers with automated systems?

Well, Wendy’s just proved us right and announced that they’re rolling out self-service kiosks “nationwide” to their 6000 stores later this year:

Wendy's will make self-order kiosks available nationwide as minimum wage hikes hit https://t.co/rocv9mQzii $WEN $MCD pic.twitter.com/XgiPydYKWy

— Ed Carson (@IBD_ECarson) May 11, 2016

And once kiosks are in place, those jobs are never coming back. From Investor’s Business Daily:

Wendy’s Penegor said company-operated stores, only about 10% of the total, are seeing wage inflation of 5% to 6%, driven both by the minimum wage and some by the need to offer a competitive wage “to access good labor.”

It’s not surprising that some franchisees might face more of a labor-cost squeeze than company restaurants. All 258 Wendy’s restaurants in California, where the minimum wage rose to $10 an hour this year and will gradually rise to $15, are franchise-operated. Likewise, about 75% of 200-plus restaurants in New York are run by franchisees. New York’s fast-food industry wage rose to $10.50 in New York City and $9.75 in the rest of the state at the start of 2016, also on the way to $15.