+Tom de Lorenzo An interesting point, we saw something like that in Alberta after the last Oil Crash.
The price of oil made it so the companies had to "find efficiencies" to maintain profit; for the most part that meant laying people off. As the price began to rise again, they still had not risen to the point they could afford labour, so they introduced more efficient automation. Now the price of oil is reasonably well above the price of labour, they still aren't hiring because the automation has reduced the demand for the labour.
So to draw from the $15/hour stunting wage analogy: higher wages meant increased automation. Even assuming the minimum wage were removed, as of this point, it would no longer matter as the high cost motivated development of an even cheaper alternative.
The price of oil made it so the companies had to "find efficiencies" to maintain profit; for the most part that meant laying people off. As the price began to rise again, they still had not risen to the point they could afford labour, so they introduced more efficient automation. Now the price of oil is reasonably well above the price of labour, they still aren't hiring because the automation has reduced the demand for the labour.
So to draw from the $15/hour stunting wage analogy: higher wages meant increased automation. Even assuming the minimum wage were removed, as of this point, it would no longer matter as the high cost motivated development of an even cheaper alternative.
(I'll see if I can dig up charts)