Minimum Wage Creates Robot Janitors

Turns out minimum wage is good for something other than creating higher unemployment, which creates more votes for Democrats by increasing government dependence. There is an actual positive aspect to forcing employers to pay more than the market value for unskilled labor. It spurs technological innovation. Walmart will soon have robot janitors:

The world’s largest retailer is rolling out 360 autonomous floor-scrubbing robots in some of its stores in the U.S. by the end of the January, it said in a joint statement with Brain Corp., which makes the machines. The autonomous janitors can clean floors on their own even when customers are around, according to the San Diego-based startup.

Janitors won’t be the only ones priced out of a job.

Walmart has already been experimenting with automating the scanning of shelves for out-of-stock items and hauling products from storage for online orders. Advances in computer vision are also making it possible to use retail floor data to better understand consumer behavior, improve inventory tracking and even do away with checkout counters, as Amazon.com Inc. is trying to do with its cashierless stores.

The higher the minimum wage, the more sense it makes to invest in developing machines to do the work.

Democrats want the minimum wage higher still — much higher. Key House Democrats want to more than double the federal minimum wage, from $7.25 to $15 per hour. Also, they want to flood the country with millions of unskilled foreigners who have minimal education. This doesn’t add up to anything good.

On a tip from Lyle.

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