A Robot Makes a Mean Caesar Salad, but Will It Cost Jobs?<br />“It’s something our union and many unions are still studying,” said Ian Lewis, research director for Unite Here Local 2, a union<br />that represents hotel, food service, restaurant and laundry workers in San Francisco and San Mateo, Calif. “We’re absolutely concerned and trying to grapple with it.”<br />Whatever their effect on employment, new robots are on the way.<br />But as a growing number of food- and drink-slinging robots have begun interacting with diners in the San Francisco Bay Area, Deepak Sekar, the device’s inventor<br />and the founder and chief executive of Chowbotics, has faced questions about whether his machine will put people out of work.<br />Researchers analyzed the effects of industrial robots on local labor markets in the United States from 1990 to 2007, and estimated<br />that adding one robot per 1,000 workers has led to unemployment for up to six workers and has caused a decrease in wages by up to 0.50 percent.<br />“We could be looking at over 50 percent of jobs disappearing in the United States<br />over the next 10 to 15 years,” said Jane Kim, a San Francisco supervisor.<br />Mr. Sekar insists that his company’s current focus — which is on the salad bar market<br />instead of restaurants more broadly — means Sally won’t be a job killer.
