[StacyRoberts]

Hypothesis: McDonald's pays brilliant automation or engineering type minds to do difficult to automate work like we are discussing here. Big salaries. Only part time. The other half is spent on the engineering. Make these jobs sought after.

Slowly the org transitions to much higher paid people in these roles across the board.

I think part of it is mgmt types think they save money reducing wages for the most numerous type of employee and it creates a black hole race to the bottom.

High end restaurants have very well paid front of house because they have a financial incentive to perform. Cashiers don't.