---
title: "Minimum wages and the machines that replace the…"
description: "The minimum wage appears on 34 recent papers in the economics and finance journals, but only 2 of 44 minimum-wage papers carry an automation, robot or technology keyword. Self-checkouts, kiosks and warehouse robots are cheapest where wages are highest. Do minimum wage increases speed up automation, and over what horizon?"
url: https://scholar4ai.com/ideas/minimum-wages-and-automation
markdown_url: https://scholar4ai.com/ideas/minimum-wages-and-automation.md
license: CC BY-NC 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/)
share_text: "Minimum wages and the machines that replace the minimum-wage job: The minimum wage appears on 34 recent papers in the economics and finance journals, but only 2 of 44 minimum-wage papers carry an automation, robot or technology keyword."
date: "2026-10-23"
updated: "2026-10-23"
status: "seed"
tags: ["economics", "labor", "automation"]
keywords: ["minimum wage", "labor demand"]
---

# Minimum wages and the machines that replace the minimum-wage job

The minimum wage appears on 34 recent papers in the economics and finance journals, but only 2 of 44 minimum-wage papers carry an automation, robot or technology keyword. Self-checkouts, kiosks and warehouse robots are cheapest where wages are highest. Do minimum wage increases speed up automation, and over what horizon?

## What prompted this

Since October 2025, 44 papers carry a minimum-wage keyword (35 in economics journals, 8 in finance), with "minimum wage" on 34. Only 2 of them also carry an automation, robot, technology, capital-labour or self-service keyword, while "labor demand" appears on 32 papers and industrial robots are a rising topic elsewhere.

## Questions

- After large minimum wage increases, do firms in affected areas buy more automation equipment and post fewer low-wage jobs, with a lag of years rather than months?
- Which tasks go first, and do the remaining jobs pay more or require more skill?
- Do the employment effects found in short-run studies understate long-run effects that run through automation?

## Data that could help

Minimum wage changes by state and country, equipment investment and job postings by establishment, and robot or kiosk adoption from supplier data.

## Next step

Relate state minimum wage changes in the US to the share of restaurant and retail job postings that mention self-service technology over the following three years.

## Related research activity

*The keywords this note follows, in the tracked finance, accounting, economics, management, operations research and AI journals as of 2026-10-26*

| Keyword | Papers, last 30 days | Rank | Papers per month, Oct 23 – Oct 26* | Papers, last 36 months |
|---|---:|---:|---|---:|
| minimum wage | 1 | #2881 | 1, 5, 3, 2, 3, 2, 3, 3, 2, 4, 3, 3, 1, 2, 1, 3, 1, 2, 2, 2, 3, 2, 3, 1, 0, 5, 4, 5, 3, 2, 1, 3, 5, 1, 2, 3, 1 | 91 |
| labor demand | 3 | #776 | 3, 0, 3, 2, 0, 4, 2, 4, 6, 4, 5, 3, 5, 1, 1, 3, 2, 3, 1, 5, 1, 2, 8, 1, 1, 2, 2, 0, 2, 2, 2, 4, 4, 4, 4, 2, 3 | 98 |

## Cite this page

Scholar4AI. (2026). Minimum wages and the machines that replace the minimum-wage job. Journal Research Rankings. Retrieved October 23, 2026, from https://scholar4ai.com/ideas/minimum-wages-and-automation

```bibtex
@misc{scholar4ai-ideas-minimum-wages-and-automation,
  author = {{Scholar4AI}},
  title = {Minimum wages and the machines that replace the minimum-wage job},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {\url{https://scholar4ai.com/ideas/minimum-wages-and-automation}},
  urldate = {2026-10-23},
  note = {Journal Research Rankings; data from OpenAlex (CC0); licensed CC BY-NC 4.0}
}
```

License: CC BY-NC 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/).