Automation is already being explored essentially everywhere, so I'm not sure motivation is a big part of it. The question is more whether it's feasible, both te

Automation is already being explored essentially everywhere, so I'm not sure motivation is a big part of it. The question is more whether it's feasible, both technically and economically, in a given case. In principle, yes, a minimum wage helps the economics of automation by making the "competition" more expensive. But with the kinds of modest wage changes typically proposed, it's a pretty marginal impact: +10% to wages might move up automation that was going to happen anyway by 6 or 12 months, but it's not the kind of change that meaningfully impacts the progress of automation on a larger scale.