$15/hr,based on a 40hr work week= $600/wk, just over $30k/yr + benefits. A robotic arm costs about $35,000. Even factoring in the costs of installing, programming, upgrades, maintenance the cost of the robot will be recovered in about a year, even less time if it replaces more than 1 worker.
And the robot doesn’t take breaks, and works open to close. Much less than 1 year to recoup the initial cost.
“Even factoring in the costs of installing, programming, upgrades, maintenance the cost of the robot will be recovered in about a year, even less time if it replaces more than 1 worker.”
Oh you are assuming a land of reason. You forgot to factor in the new “robot tax”, the “robot social security impact fee”, and the “minimum wage worker retraining assessment”.
These people are crazy. They will make it more expensive for business whether you use robots or not.
Watch it happen.
If a McDonalds is open 24 hours, it will take a little over 4 months to recover the costs.
18 hours a day (6 AM to midnight) and it will be 7-8 months to recover the cost.
Even at $7.50 an hour, the time for a 24 hour McDonalds to recover the cost is only 9 months.
It looks like robot makers are going to become busy. All the $15 an hour people have done is open business owners eyes to how cheap robots actually are.
And at $3 an hour, the robot pays for itself in five years. This was coming either way.
Plus... robots don’t sue the owners, and you don’t have to pay unemployment or disability insurance or health benefits either.