According to the text, what is the author’s concession? Support your answer with evidence from

Question

the text
n America, minimum-wage workers are better paid than the average worker in Mexico. Why? It's not
because U.S. employers are more generous than their Mexican counterparts. Nor do Americans somehow
deserve better pay.
[3] American minimum-wage earners make more because they produce more. Better education and greater
capital investment make American workers more productive, raising their earnings.
[4] Competition forces businesses to pay workers according to their productivity. If companies pay less, their
employees will jump ship to competitors. And if they pay workers more than they produce, they go out of
business.
[5] For better or worse, fast-food jobs are relatively low-productivity positions, typically filled by inexperienced
workers. Most fast-food customers want a quick, inexpensive meal. They will not regularly pay premium
prices for a burger and fries.
[6] Doubling McDonalds' wages would raise their total costs by 25 percent _ well above profit margins. But
raising prices would drive customers away.
[7] If Congress mandated fast-food restaurants to pay $15 an hour, they would have to change operations to
deliver the kind of productivity to justify those higher costs. That would mean replacing current workers with
machines and hiring fewer, more skilled workers to maintain them.
[8] Restaurants could do this in a variety of ways, such as using iPad kiosks instead of cashiers to take
orders, or installing the new robotic burger flipper that makes up to 400 hamburgers an hour.

Answer 1

The author's concession in the text can be identified in the acknowledgment that raising the minimum wage, particularly in fast-food positions, could have significant consequences for business operations and employment. Specifically, the author concedes that if Congress mandated fast-food restaurants to pay $15 an hour, it would necessitate changes in operations to ensure that productivity aligns with the higher wage costs.

Evidence supporting this concession can be found in the statement, "If Congress mandated fast-food restaurants to pay $15 an hour, they would have to change operations to deliver the kind of productivity to justify those higher costs." This suggests that the author recognizes the potential impact of increasing the minimum wage on the fast-food industry and indicates that such a mandate could lead to a transformation in how these businesses function, including the possibility of replacing current workers with machines and hiring fewer, more skilled workers. This acknowledgment of the challenges and repercussions associated with a minimum wage increase illustrates the complexity of the issue and suggests that while higher wages may seem beneficial, they come with trade-offs that must be considered.