Low wages, poor working conditions, long hours, little to no upward mobility. Sound familiar? While these are the current complaints behind the restaurant service worker shortage, they aren’t new. Sewer scrapers, tanners, farmworkers, and textile workers are just some of the many jobs where people felt under appreciated for their labor.
But what changed? Innovation, technology, automation. At the time, people were afraid of what it would mean for the future of humanity and employment, but I’m going to guess you can hardly find anyone who wants to go back to working in a stuffy factory or stop using modern farm machinery.
In that way, the past is very much like today. Just recently, several entrepreneurs have started to open restaurants where pizzas are made entirely by robots. Some question if consumers will accept it, while others wonder if we are taking away jobs from hardworking people. What does this mean for the future of the restaurant industry?
Many have looked at the restaurant service worker shortage as a negative, but what if we start to look at it from a different perspective. Perhaps during the early days of COVID, many people in the industry realized that they were unhappy with their previous employment and deliberately decided to seek more fulfilling pursuits. Wages have risen considerably, but you still don’t see people flooding back to the industry.
And that’s okay!
Now mankind has the opportunity to innovate. Instead of pulling people back into jobs they don’t want, we can use technology and automation to make products that are just as good for a lesser cost. Quality waiters and other service professionals will still be in high demand, but they can focus more on the experience of the customer, rather than the production of the food. Technicians will be needed to maintain the machines, engineers will work on producing better machines, and entrepreneurs will be able to expand their ventures at a faster pace.
In the end, all of us benefit from free enterprise, and humans can be left to pursue higher-level thinking and passion projects that will spur the next round of innovation. Rather than bemoaning the loss of jobs or complaining about millennials/Gen Z not being willing to work, we can celebrate the progress we are making as a society.
Bon appetit!
Executive Vice President
Michael is the Executive Vice President, overseeing all of Libertas’ public policy efforts.