Minimum wage and the propensity to automate or offshore

This report: o Explores whether increases in the minimum wage change the employment possibilities of low skilled workers who are reliant on automatable employment. This may happen if firms substitute their production process with technology following a minimum wage increase. For instance, job loss may arise if manufacturing firms substitute assembly line workers with robotic arms. o Explores whether increases in the minimum wage change the employment possibilities of low skilled workers who are reliant on jobs that could reasonably be offshored. Intuitive examples include firms out-sourcing their customer service teams to another country with lower minimum wages or outsourcing a component of their manufacturing process. o Give a full picture of any labour-market adjustment by industry and a variety of demographic groups to uncover differential responses. For example, we empirically assess whether older workers in automatable employment are worse off than younger workers in terms of employment possibilities after a minimum wage increase.