http://www.foodchainsfilm.com/
The National Restaurant Association (dubbed "the other NRA") is responsible for lobbying for keeping tipped minimum wage under $3 an hour !
But I think the robot labor force is upon us no matter what, and delaying it by using extremely underpaid wage labor doesn't seem to be doing anyone any favors.
If a living wage forces automation, then it's better to force that and deal with that reality (with social programs, education, basic income, anything), that tilt at windmills.
Sometimes I wonder if people being on welfare and having 40 extra hours a week to figure out what they're doing with their life is better than people working 40 hours at a week at a stressful, useless "job"... and still being on welfare because it pays barely anything.
However living wages suffer from the problem that they only benefit people with jobs. Even if they didn't increase unemployment, I would not support them because I don't think a person deserves more than their employer is willing to pay. However, I do think that all people below a certain income should have their income supplemented by the government (what we call welfare in the UK/Aus/NZ, US welfare is much more complex).
I think one problem is that the left has encouraged people to think in terms of rights and justice, when the problems around poverty are really problems of redistribution and charity. Saying that you want to help poor people because they need help and can't provide enough income for themselves sounds arrogant, but it's the truth.
My pie-in-the-sky ideal would be if Corporate America (tm) decided that getting enough out of employees was better in the long run than getting the most out of them to make this quarter.
This argument was conceived precisely so wages could be pressured downward. It becomes patently obvious when you dig a little into the writings by economists who make these predictions - they are typically absolutely clueless about technology.
I really have to ask at what point people started thinking that reducing total productivity in order to increase the supply of menial toil is a good idea.
Also, I didn't get very good tips compared to some of the attractive and personable young women I worked with. Generally we did make more than minimum wage after tips, especially if you considered a weekly or biweekly average.
If I ever got stiffed on a table that would come out of my check, so my worst night was where I only had a few tables and got stiffed on a big one. I ended up paying to work that night since I needed to keep the job.