1.7 million workers make minimum wage out of 73~ million that work for an hourly wage 59~% of American workers are hourly... That includes your gas station clerks, fast food, retail, etc etc... Not all of them make minimum wage... So, when you guys say hourly workers you have to realize you are talking about the kid at Burger King, the salesmen at sharper image, walmart checkers, etc etc... You are saying they don't make enough? I say replace them with autocheckers, robotic vending technology etc... Out of 111~ million US workers I believe 33 million are redundant and can be replaced by robots, and foreign labor... 30% Kids... We don't need manned check out counters, we don't need kids cooking hamburgers at mcdonalds... We can reduce the work force effectively using more efficient streamlined methods of automation...
I would even say the loading docks can be automated heavily... We are heading into the future not the past... You can fight it, cling to it, but that won't stop it....
If we removed many of these low end hourly service based jobs then you would see your hourly wage metrics sky rocket... Do you really believe the person at Pizza Hut deserves more money for putting a frozen pizza in an oven? Have you ever seen a video of automated PCR tests?
Once they can implement full automation in textiles and clothing we will see the end of the sweat shop... Hurray! The best way to end the exploitation of human labor is to make human labor redundant... Automation, Robotics etc is going to stop exploitation to a large degree, but you won't have a job unless you adapt... Simple...
Most people in demand positions are seeing increases... Hourly rates also include the guys working at McDonald's...
