Increased wages is almost completely irrelevant. Do you really think the perfect price point that getting rid of a worker makes sense is the magic slot between $10/hour and $15/hour, when you're comparing to an AI that don't ask for a daily wage at all?
If they think the public will accept it, they will adopt the technology ASAP once it becomes technologically feasible at an upfront coast they're willing to pay. And technology declines in price so rapidly that wage differences are already irrelevant. Whatever technology puts $14/hour workers out of work this year is going to put $10/hour workers out of work next year, congrats on lasting an extra year in a job that doesn't even pay you enough to live on.
Doubling all your employees wages is not anything a business can easily do. In fact, with the way labor wages have risen in the past, there was no reasonable thought for any business to think it'd double in less than 50 years from now..
The minimum wage was $3.10 in 1981. It's now $7.25 in 2021.. that's $4.15 of increase in 40 YEARS breh.. Now government talking about a $7.75 increase in one year. They want to increase it by more than 100%. Any business that relies on paying their employees shyt wages, like McDonald's, would go into panic mode. And most of these places are franchises anyway. They could choose to keep their employees, but hell nah. They willing to risk new equipment that might not even work properly or have your customers angry.
Yes technology is there. Yes they are always going to look to cut jobs. But so is every industry. They all wish they could hire robots who don't need money, time off, set hours, and more. But low income paying companies are definitely rushing to get these people out of there before that $15 goes in effect. Any good businessman would.
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