Home
/
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
/
Raising Minimum Wage Means More Jobs … For Technology
Raising Minimum Wage Means More Jobs … For Technology
Jun 6, 2025 8:23 AM

There is much talk about raising minimum wage, even to the absurd rate of $22 per hour. President Obama has promised an increase to $9 per hour. Some small business owners, feeling the pinch of these raising wages, are turning to technology to solve their economic issues.

Carla Hesseltine, who runs a small bakery, is considering eliminating employees and replacing them with tablets that will take orders:

In order for her Just Cupcakes LLC to remain profitable in the face of higher expected labor costs, Ms. Hesseltine believes the customer-ordering process “would have to be more automated” at the Virginia Beach, Va., chain, which has two strip-mall locations as well as a food van. Thus, she could eliminate the 10 workers who currently ask customers what they would like to eat.

Small business owners can only raise prices so much without damaging sales, in order to cope with increased labor costs. Of course, there are costs involved with the set-up, upkeep and repair of technology, and the intangible cost of the loss of human contact.

Many studies about the effects of higher wages on overall employment tend to be politicized, clashing over whether the benefits of higher paid workers outweigh the costs of having fewer low-wage jobs. To support President Obama’s case for an increase in the minimum wage, the White House cites a 2009 academic study that says any adverse employment effect from such would be of a small and possibly irrelevant magnitude.

The raise in minimum wage to $9 does in fact seem to be minor. However, it is clear from Ms. Hesseltine’s story alone that tinkering with the minimum wage system will have ramifications. One could argue that the loss of minimum wage jobs will be balanced out by sales of technology and the jobs created there. It remains to be seen.

Comments
Welcome to mreligion comments! Please keep conversations courteous and on-topic. To fosterproductive and respectful conversations, you may see comments from our Community Managers.
Sign up to post
Sort by
Show More Comments
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
Faith makes a difference
“In the first nationwide study that specifically measures how faith relates to the organization and delivery of human service programs, initial results indicate that faith-based or religious charities do indeed conduct their operations in ways that markedly set them apart from secular organizations.” This is the first of several studies highlighting results from the 2004 Samaritan Award survey. This study looks at the role that faith plays in non-profit organizations that participate in human service programs. The study, written by...
Up in smoke
Cigar Jack passes along this story (PDF Page2) about “faith leaders” soliciting the government to place tobacco regulation under the auspices of the FDA. The proposed legislation, which has twice been left languishing in the U.S. House of Representatives, “would give the FDA authority over the manufacturing, marketing and sale of tobacco products.” These faith leaders, like Rev. T. Randall Smith, pastor of Deer Park United Methodist Church and president of Texas Conference of Churches, represent a faction of Christianity...
Scamming society through the courts
The Wall Street Journal editorializes today (subscription required) on a rare bit of good news from the world of tort law: If the criminal investigation of class-action titan Milberg Weiss is anything to go by, prosecutors may finally be starting to hold the trial bar accountable for its legal abuses. Another good sign is that a separate federal grand jury, this one in New York, is investigating the ringleaders of the latest tort scam, silicosis. Much of the credit for...
You know the ONE
“We don’t want you to give your money. We’ll just take it instead.” mercial, the one where all the celebrities and guys in collars and habits are talking about raising your “voice” for the world’s poor, has been nominated for an Emmy award for best mercial. It’s the one that ends with the voice of Tom Hanks saying, “We’re not asking for your money. We’re asking for your voice.” In one sense, that is totally true. If those behind the...
Running out of stones
Who needs sustainable cities? It appears that China does. Slashdot reports that a leading architect of the sustainable city movement, William McDonough, has missioned by the Chinese government to create “a national prototype for the design of a sustainable village, an effort focused on creating a template for improving the quality of life for 800 million rural Chinese.” A quick survey of McDonough’s clients includes Ford Motor Company, Fuller Theological Seminary, the Grand Rapids Art Museum, and IBM Corporation. In...
Not in Uzbekistan
Remember what I said about the relationship between charity and evangelism? Here’s a tip: Be careful in Uzbekistan. Forum 18 relates the story of a woman who runs a charity in Uzbekistan, and has been the target of harassment by the secret police. Marina Kalinkina rejects accusations that she was conducting illegal religious activity. She stresses that her charity – which is registered with Tashkent’s justice department – helps old people and impoverished families. “On the day the police descended...
Morality at the movies
An article in today’s New York Times confirms the trend in Hollywood to make movies that are faith and family friendly. Sharon Waxman reports that producers, directors, studio executives and marketing specialists have been looking to either mollify or entice an audience that made its power felt with last year’s “Passion of the Christ.” That film, directed by Mel Gibson, took in an astonishing $370 million at the domestic box office when released by Newmarket Films in February 2004 and...
For Associate Justice – John G. Roberts, Jr.
President Bush announced tonight that he has chosen federal appeals judge John Roberts to succeed Sandra Day O’Connor as an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court. Roberts is not a well known figure, but has garnered respect from across the political spectrum throughout his career: John G. Roberts Jr. was seen as smart and cautious, conservative in his leanings, but not an outspoken ideologue prone to making brash pronouncements. He was the clear favorite of Washington’s Republican legal...
Bastille day
On this date in 1789, citizens of Paris stormed the Bastille prison, sparking the French Revolution. Here’s a quote from Lord paring the American and the French revolutions: “What the French took from the Americans was their theory of revolution, not their theory of government — their cutting, not their sewing.” He also says of France, “The country that had been so proud of its kings, of its nobles, and of its chains, could not learn without teaching that popular...
Pentagon keeps close watch on China’s military build-up
In an annual report to Congress the Pentagon claims that China now has up to 730 short-range ballistic missiles on its coast opposite Taiwan. Last year’s report found only 500. The Pentagon said China could now be spending up to $90 billion a year on defense, and that its military build-up is putting the region at risk. China has dismissed the claims, insisting its build-up is peaceful. “Not only is China not a threat to anyone, but we would also...
Related Classification
Copyright 2023-2025 - www.mreligion.com All Rights Reserved