Absent overall changes to the competitive forces that drive pricing (which is complex, because this might force some companies to increase prices, which would d

Absent overall changes to the competitive forces that drive pricing (which is complex, because this might force some companies to increase prices, which would decrease competition for companies which don't need to, which would allow them to increase prices), and assuming this pricing change doesn't make labor alternatives (eg increasing automation) economically viable, it's actually pretty reasonable to expect employers to eat the labor cost. It's probably the rational thing to see.