Is your job / career at risk of Artificial Intelligence putting you in the unemployment line ?

[wag123]

No... AI is not a threat, a 15/hr minimum wage is a threat!!!!!!!!!!!

Can YOU afford to live on $7.25/hr? Neither can anyone else.
Would YOU work for $7.25/hr? I didn't think so.
Why do you think that there are so many homeless people in this country? About $12/hr is the MINIMUM one can make and still afford to live in a basic 1br apartment in areas that have a low cost of living, and that is if you walk or take a bus to work and don't have any kids.

 

[LazyDog]

There are jobs that might be affected while others not so much. AI will never do a plumbers work or a Lawyers.

In R&D, looking at the data can be real helpful and other similar settings.

 

[jhs914]

Can YOU afford to live on $7.25/hr? Neither can anyone else.
Would YOU work for $7.25/hr? I didn't think so.
Why do you think that there are so many homeless people in this country? About $12/hr is the MINIMUM one can make and still afford to live in a basic 1br apartment in areas that have a low cost of living, and that is if you walk or take a bus to work and don't have any kids.

I agree that $7 and hour isn't a living wage. But have you considered all of the consequences of a $15 an hour minimum wage? If a business has to double the wage it pays an 18 year old cashier or cook at a fast food restaurant it will have to either raise the price of its menu and/or automate those jobs, eliminating them completely. Instead of a high school student taking your order it will be a self service kiosk. The burger flipper will be automated. Those jobs that can't be automated will either have their hours reduced, eliminated if possible, or have the increased cost of the labor passed on to the customer (you).

Have you thought about what will happen to the rest of the wage scale? If a higher skilled worker is already making $15 an hour he will not stand pat at what is now minimum wage. He will demand $20-25 and hour. That cost is passed on to the the consumer (you). So prices for goods and services will rise as wages rise making the cost of living go up. Suddenly $15 minimum wage is no longer a living wage. And now you will be demanding a raise from your employer because the cost of everything has gone up to cover the cost of a $15 an hour minimum wage.

You asked "would you work for $7.25 an hour?" No. But I did when I first started working (at the then minimum wage), but as I gained more experience, work ethic, technical knowledge, and training I got paid more because I was more productive. I wasn't worth more than minimum wage to my employer when I first started working. As I became more productive my value to my employer increased as did my wages. Economics 101.

 

[tbm5690]

Can YOU afford to live on $7.25/hr? Neither can anyone else.
Would YOU work for $7.25/hr? I didn't think so.
Why do you think that there are so many homeless people in this country? About $12/hr is the MINIMUM one can make and still afford to live in a basic 1br apartment in areas that have a low cost of living, and that is if you walk or take a bus to work and don't have any kids.

If minimum wage goes up, the gap between cost of automation and cost of employees closes and people will lose jobs to automation. $7.25/hr isn't much, but no one is forced to take a job paying that either. Take one that pays $11 or $12 an hour and be willing to relocate if your area doesn't have options above minimum wage. By in large, there are homeless people because of the choices they've made. I'm all for second chances and helping folks get back on their feet, but you reap what you sow. The issue is how one defines the "cost of living"...for many this means driving a new car and eating out every weekend, and paying $150/month on cable for their 65" TV. I've made less than $12/hour, owned a car and lived comfortably in a one bedroom for a short period of time because I wasn't unrealistic with what I "needed".

 

[UncleDave]

Can YOU afford to live on $7.25/hr? Neither can anyone else.
Would YOU work for $7.25/hr? I didn't think so.
Why do you think that there are so many homeless people in this country? About $12/hr is the MINIMUM one can make and still afford to live in a basic 1br apartment in areas that have a low cost of living, and that is if you walk or take a bus to work and don't have any kids.

I think the homeless problem is more complex than the wage.
You cant live where you want to on minimum wage and people seem to believe every job should let them live wherever they wish.

To the point of tbm5960
Now I cant afford to bring on high school kids or part time people because I have to pay them 15 an hour.
Need a kid to help sweep the shop up - nope. too much money I bought an industrial makita floor sweeper.

 

[4WD]

I think the homeless problem is more complex than the wage.
You cant live where you want to on minimum wage and people seem to believe every job should let them live wherever they wish.

To the point of tbm5960
Now I cant afford to bring on high school kids or part time people because I have to pay them 15 an hour.
Need a kid to help sweep the shop up - nope. too much money I bought an industrial makita floor sweeper.

And that’s a floor sweeper who’s learning things. Was talking to a manager lately who had mixed results with vocational school hires and thinks his better hands started out sweeping shop floors, cleaning equipment, fixing things … and the older guys liked their work ethic - curiosity … OTJ training led to adding them to formal training sessions …

 

[javacontour]

If you don't want to live on $7.25/hour, have skills worth more than that.

Not everyone has $15/hour skills. Doesn't mean they are not valuable as a person. It simply means their skill level doesn't merit more money.

Or their background makes them a higher risk. I.E. criminal record, addiction, poor prior work attendance record, whatever.

One cannot arbitrarily pick a value and say the labor of everyone is worth X. Such pronouncements seldom have a root in reality.

When the cashier is confused if my total adds up to $10.72, and she sees my $20 and keys it in before noticing I have $0.02 or $0.22 in change as well, she may not be worth $15/hour. Not everyone has $15/hour skills.

Once you set artificial floors on wages, one of two things will happen, cheaper alternatives will be found, or only those whose skills are worth $15/hour will get hired. The person who wasn't attracted by $7.25/hour might bite for $15/hour. A smart employer will hire more productive people, or those who can do more than just flip the burger or whatever task, and those who were making $7.25/hour will now be unemployed because their skills don't merit the pay demanded.

Can YOU afford to live on $7.25/hr? Neither can anyone else.
Would YOU work for $7.25/hr? I didn't think so.
Why do you think that there are so many homeless people in this country? About $12/hr is the MINIMUM one can make and still afford to live in a basic 1br apartment in areas that have a low cost of living, and that is if you walk or take a bus to work and don't have any kids.

 

[UncleDave]

And that’s a floor sweeper who’s learning things. Was talking to a manager lately who had mixed results with vocational school hires and thinks his better hands started out sweeping shop floors, cleaning equipment, fixing things … and the older guys liked their work ethic - curiosity … OTJ training led to adding them to formal training sessions …

You can tell a lot about a kid the way they do menial jobs.

Caliornias latest is now if I want interns under 18 - I have to train every front line manager with a 4 hour sexual abuse program to make sure the kid isnt being abused at home. Thats tens of thousand of dollars of cost to the company. The state wants me to be their parents now too.

Used to be wed give summer kids everything from shipping to QC experience to see what they might want to do and give them a decent paycheck.

Not happening anymore.I just canceled the program.

 

[4WD]

Yeah … help that hurts is becoming common

 

[blupupher]

Can YOU afford to live on $7.25/hr? Neither can anyone else.
Would YOU work for $7.25/hr? I didn't think so.
Why do you think that there are so many homeless people in this country? About $12/hr is the MINIMUM one can make and still afford to live in a basic 1br apartment in areas that have a low cost of living, and that is if you walk or take a bus to work and don't have any kids.

Well, this thread will be locked shortly I am sure.

But, minimum wage is not designed to be a living wage. It is a starting wage. If you want to make more than that, get a skill that earns more than that.

As mentioned above, making it $15/hr does nothing in the long run except hurt those at that level.
This thread is about automation and AI taking away your job, and when the cost of automation is cheaper and more efficient than paying a person, then automation will happen.
Fast food restaurants have resisted automation because it was cheaper to hire a person to do the job than it was to develop, deploy, retrofit and maintain automation. That gap has been closing just due to advancements in technology, and a $15 minimum wage will push that to being a better option.
Most stores are going to self checkout for a majority of their registers.
So the question is, would you rather work for $7.25/hr, or not have a job?

 

[wag123]

For sure there are a significant number of homeless people that have other issues that are causing their homelessness. However, there has been a rather dramatic increase in homelessness in the past few years that can't be explained by substance abuse, mental illness, disabilities, or criminal records. A fair percentage of recent homelessness has been caused by the inability to earn a living wage large enough to be able to afford someplace to live. It is a very real problem. Many of these homeless individuals would be glad to work if they could find a job where they could earn enough to support themselves. In order to get a job one must have a place to live. Nobody that I know would be willing to hire someone who is living on the street, even at $7.25/hr. It is a self perpetuating problem. A $15/hr national minimum wage may not be the answer, but $7.25/hr certainly isn't either, maybe somewhere in the middle depending on the cost of living in an area.

 

[Wolf359]

For sure there are a significant number of homeless people that have other issues that are causing their homelessness. However, there has been a rather dramatic increase in homelessness in the past few years that can't be explained by substance abuse, mental illness, disabilities, or criminal records. A fair percentage of recent homelessness has been caused by the inability to earn a living wage large enough to be able to afford someplace to live. It is a very real problem. Many of these homeless individuals would be glad to work if they could find a job where they could earn enough to support themselves. In order to get a job one must have a place to live. Nobody that I know would be willing to hire someone who is living on the street, even at $7.25/hr. It is a self perpetuating problem. A $15/hr national minimum wage may not be the answer, but $7.25/hr certainly isn't either, maybe somewhere in the middle depending on the cost of living in an area.

I'll tell you the flip side of a $12.75 minimum wage, I used to have to evict people over the years, probably done over a dozen and a few others that never went to court because they just moved when they couldn't pay. Now everyone is paying.

Also if you look at other countries like Australia which has the highest minimum wage in the world, they still have fast food workers. A few other cities in the US are already at $15 or more. Basically what happens is that prices go up and unemployment might go up a little bit, but it's not the doom and gloom posted above.

What Happened When These Places Raised the Minimum Wage to $15

NYC and other cities are already testing the waters.

www.yahoo.com

 

[PandaBear]

Inventory is a huge cost for pharmacy, much larger than labor.

I retired from healthcare over ten years ago so my guess is that it is much different now.

There'll be drones and the equivalent of amazon prime for that very soon. ERP will tells the driver what to deliver to which place to keep inventory low.

 

[PandaBear]

Without going into politics. Here's my opinion of the minimum wage:

Every action has a reaction. When you mandate too much minimum wage (like minimum wage then on top of that a tip), people change their way of doing business (like having fast casual restaurants that you order, pay, take your own food, then clean up when you are done, or the owner will do the waiter's job instead of hiring a waiter). The alternative to minimum wage is the "gig" economy, people will be paid by the job like uber or door dash, then get paid not by the hour but by the tips and the number of jobs they get. This is just a way to work around these mandates. The plus side is, people can be flexible about their hours so they can 1) live far away, work odd hours, make less money, and still be able to live, or 2) work around child care schedules so they can afford to make less by paying less for some expenses.

In 2021 we will starts seeing more people move out of high COL area and remote work, this should help balance the minimum wage / cost of living equation, but it will also means the middle col area will have more competitions.

 

[Dave Hess]

$12.50 an hour minimum wage is a realistic pay for the year 2020.

$7.50 is just silly.

 

[SeaJay]

I'm close to retirement, not before then. But eventually, AI will replace a bunch of folks in my job.

 

[Oildudeny]

I sure wish artificial intelligence could run the warehouse and make deliveries of supplies. I'd pay for it.

 

[SeaJay]

$12.50 an hour minimum wage is a realistic pay for the year 2020.

$7.50 is just silly.

The revenue a business brings in is what supports the amount that can be paid to workers. If there isn't enough revenue to support government mandated wages, either the business shuts down, or it figures out a way to use fewer workers. The owner typically will not dig into his/her savings to pay those wages.

 

[PimTac]

I'll tell you the flip side of a $12.75 minimum wage, I used to have to evict people over the years, probably done over a dozen and a few others that never went to court because they just moved when they couldn't pay. Now everyone is paying.

Also if you look at other countries like Australia which has the highest minimum wage in the world, they still have fast food workers. A few other cities in the US are already at $15 or more. Basically what happens is that prices go up and unemployment might go up a little bit, but it's not the doom and gloom posted above.

What Happened When These Places Raised the Minimum Wage to $15

NYC and other cities are already testing the waters.

www.yahoo.com

I wonder how much a burger is in Australia?

McDonald's Menu Prices in Australia - April 2024 - Aussie Prices

All the latest menu prices for McDonald's in Australia. Burgers, combos, salads, wraps, family meals, drinks, desserts, and more.

www.aussieprices.com.au

 

[Wolf359]

I wonder how much a burger is in Australia?

Once you convert to US dollars, a big mac works out to $4.83. Locally near me it's $5.79. But minimum wage here is $12.75.