No matter how hard liberal politicians may try to deny this, the real minimum wage is zero and will always be.

California’s fast-food workers have learned this lesson by experience. Owners of these places of employment are responding to the minimum wage increase that is destroying the economy by eliminating their employees and replacing them with automated kiosks. It wasn’t long at all, was it?

Fast-food restaurants in California are automating their operations to eliminate wage-earning employees.

Owners say that the move to make customers order at digital kiosks eases the financial strain caused by rising labor costs after the minimum wage of the state’s fast-food workers increased from $16 per hour to $20 an hour on April 1.

Harsh Gai, a Burger King franchisee who runs 140 outlets on the West Coast is driving the automation. He intends to install digital kiosks in all of his restaurants within a few months, a dramatic acceleration from the original five-to-10-year timeline.

He’s certainly accelerating his plans. This is his livelihood and he has no obligation to give it up to placate the pandering efforts of leftist politicians, who are stubbornly ignorant when it comes to economics.

Here is the onion:

Restaurant owners are looking for alternative ways to remain profitable. Their primary method of reducing overheads is to reduce the number of staff.

Layoffs are a harsh reality for both employees and their unions who have been advocating wage increases for years.

Several well-known pizza chains, including Pizza Hut and Round Table Pizza restaurants, have also been affected by the increase in wage costs. Management has made statements about how the cost increases are unsustainable. McDonald’s and Starbucks, among other major fast-food chains, have indicated that they will raise prices to offset these increased costs.

First, this stinker is a financial one; to survive and continue to provide goods and services businesses must be profitable. In the face of this situation, i.e., artificial inflation of labor cost by government fiat they must either increase revenues or reduce costs. Fast food is an expense that almost everyone can afford. If prices increase, sales will drop.

Second, there is the issue of employment. Automating fast food is possible in several ways. Owners can replace order takers with kiosks. Other options are available, such as the RoboBurger automated hamburger machine. This robot can handle the entire burger-making process, including custom orders.

What about the former employees, then? Doesn’t that say it all? Now they are former employees. Now they are earning the real minimum wage, which is zero.

You could replace your entire outlet by using the RoboBurger, and you would not need any employees other than the occasional employee who has to service and stock the machine.

It’s sad to think that not long ago, many young people got their first job by flipping hamburgers in a fast-food joint. I knew a high school student who got a job in the McDonald’s outlet of his town flipping burgers, and then frying fries. Twenty years later he had a franchise. This opportunity is now gone, at least for California.

It was inevitable from the moment California’s immaculately coiffed governor signed this stupid law. This bill reveals the sad state in which California’s government is currently operating, as well as the economic ignorance of California legislators. The market is now out of reach for a generation of young adults who are looking to gain experience and find part-time jobs.

Good going, Sacramento. Keep it up. You’re doing terrific. And yes, that is sarcasm.