Robot Minimum Wage Workers

Business who happily replace minimum wage workers with robots probably won't need to worry about local tax increases needed to subsidize unemployment, low-income nutrition and housing programs. That comes out of the pockets of the franchise owners.

Businesses really have two choices: They can know to whom their money goes when they pay a living wage, or they can not know to whom their money goes by paying higher taxes.

They complain about government regulation and taxation, but they can't understand that they and their predecessors earned it through their avarice.

Now about Wendy's:

• Tech Insider: Wendy's is replacing its lowest-paid workers with robots
• RedState: The Minimum Wage for Robots is Zero so Wendy’s Hires a Bunch
• Government Slaves: Wendy’s To Switch To Self Ordering And Automation To Avoid $15/hr Wage hike
• The Wall Street Journal: Another Minimum Wage Backfire Wendy’s explains what mandated wage hikes do to jobs at burger joints.
• MarketWatch (June 2015): Wendy's shares surge on news of $1.4 billion buyback, long-term outlook
• Current MarketWatch data on Wendy's: http://www.marketwatch.com/investing/stock/wen

Why I'm Incredulous of Polls and Union Endorsements

Fortune

Why the Bernie Sanders Campaign May Have Peaked

Article cites Bloomberg politics polls, not the rate of campaign cash donations.

Los Angeles Timmes

Bernie Sanders' momentum stalls in an unlikely place: union halls

Union leaders seem to be ignoring their members cries for supporting Bernie Sanders

In These Times

Labor For Bernie Sanders Activists Say They Are Undeterred By Union Endorsements of Hillary Clinton

Examples of grass-roots union support for Bernie Sanders

U.S. News

Will Labor Feel the Bern?

A Union President chose Hillary over Bernie because "we need to win."

Forbes

Campaign Donation Limits Are Irrelevant, Just Look At Bernie Sanders And Ben Carson's Small Donor Cash-In

Small donors are far from reaching their contribution limits, and they can donate again.

Open Secrets

Candidate Summary, 2016 Cycle

Look how much cash Bernie Sanders has raised so far.

When I saw the headline at Fortune, I had to do some digging and sure enough, the media is relying on polling data, because after all, polls can tell you what you want to hear if you know who to ask.

Other media outlets are glomming onto the the counter-intuitive union endorsement of Hillary Clinton, who hasn't really been fighting for labor as much as Bernie Sanders.

One union leader said he personally loved Bernie but endorsed Hillary because he thought she had a better chance of winning, but the media and the union leadership cannot see the groundswell of support for Bernie coming from the rank-and-file.

It appears the media are presupposing a Clinton advantage based on the assumption that union leaders held a vote among the members. I couldn't find the rules for endorsing candidates, but The Daily Caller reported that Bernie and Hillary met with union leaders in a private meeting. which suggests that the rank-and-file union members don't have much of a voice in the matter.

Raising the Minimum Wage

AlJazeera

Seattle restaurant workers report 'serious problems' despite $15 wage law

PJ Media

Seattle $15 an Hour Phased-In Minimum Wage Law Has Cost 700 jobs

Western Journalism

Seattle Raised Minimum Wage To $15- What Immediately Happened Will Have Them Regretting It

Independent Journal

Seattle’s Minimum Wage Hike Is Underway. A Damning Chart Shows How That’s Working Out…

Economic Policy Instutite

Employment and the Minimum Wage—Evidence from Recent State Labor Market Trends AND What Families Need to Get By

Civic Skunk Works

YOU SHOULD READ THIS STORY ABOUT SEATTLE’S “MINIMUM WAGE MELTDOWN THAT NEVER HAPPENED”

The Stranger

How a $15 Minimum Wage Would Make Everyone Richer

One Seattle Coalition

OneSeattle Coalition is a growing and diverse coalition of local businesses, non-profits, manufacturers and restaurants.

I recently started a poll at Google+ asking "what if every minimum wage worker had an extra $7 per hour to spend?" It sparked a discussion about costs of doing business, inflation and potential reduction in employment.

I decided to collect some articles about it and I was not really surprised where the line was drawn on opinions and research "findings."

If you ever wanted to know which media source was liberal or conservative, looking up their opinions about raising the minimum wage is a glaring test.