An artist’s approximation of ex-McDonald’s CEO Ed Rensi in his Fox Business appearance on Tuesday. (credit: South Park Studios)

For years, economists have been issuing predictions about how automation will impact the world’s job markets, but those studies and guesses have yet to make a call based on what would happen if a given sector’s wages rose. Instead, that specific guesswork mantle has been taken up by a former McDonald’s CEO, who declared on Tuesday that a rise in the American minimum wage will set our nation’s robotic revolution into motion.

In an appearance on Fox Business’ Mornings with Maria, Ed Rensi claimed that a minimum wage increase to $ 15 an hour would result in “job loss like you can’t believe” before ceding ground to our new robotic overlords. “I was at the National Restaurant Show yesterday, and if you look at the robotic devices that are coming into the restaurant industry—it’s cheaper to buy a $ 35,000 robotic arm than it is to hire an employee who’s inefficient making $ 15 an hour bagging French fries.”

When pressed, Rensi admitted that he thinks “franchising businesses” like fast-food restaurants are already hurtling towards automation, saying that those businesses are “dependent on people who have low job skills that need to grow. If you can’t get people a reasonable wage, you’re gonna get machines to do the work. It’s just common sense. It’s going to happen whether you like it or not.” He then insisted that an increased minimum wage will make robotic worker adoption “just happen faster.”