How does competition for workers decrease over time through higher wages? If you are implying that more high school graduates would choose a particular industry

How does competition for workers decrease over time through higher wages? If you are implying that more high school graduates would choose a particular industry or profession because of a wage hike, it's still a situation of taking them away from other options. The market is free enough. There seems to be some collusion, direct or indirect. That would change my proposition though, because companies cooperate because defecting (by increasing wages) doesn't benefit. If one company increases wages, others have to follow. Good for workers, but that's not magically creating any new workers either. It's not about "corporate profits" but about the marginal profit of an additional worker gained through higher wage offers. On the contrary, at a certain point workers decrease work hours when they get more pay.