News

Carl's Jr. CEO's comments on automated restaurants cause controversy

Recently Carl Jr. CEO Andy Puzder said he saw fully automated restaurants as a solution to rising minimum wages. Several Twitter users voiced criticism on the CEO's statements.

April 1, 2016

Recently Carl Jr. CEO Andy Puzder said he saw fully automated restaurants as a solution to rising minimum wages. The solution would be similar to Eatsa, where users can order all their food on a kiosk, and never interact with a customer, according to a report by PIX11.

Puzder has spoken publically in the past against raising the minimum wage as he believes it hurts competition. He also believes that Millennials would prefer fully automated restaurants. "Millennials like not seeing people . . . I’ve actually seen young people waiting in line to use the kiosk where there’s a person standing behind the counter, waiting on nobody," Puzder said.

Many commentators were not happy with Puzder's comments, taking to Twitter to criticize the CEO. One user compared his vision to that of the movie Idiocracy, where all food is served by machines. Others called for a boycott.

Puzder also took to Twitter to respond to criticism, saying that an increase in minimum wages would lead to less jobs, according to the report.