Economists have found that minimum wage increases can cause employers to offer fewer jobs, but there’s ongoing debate about the severity of potential job losses.

In California, some fast-food franchises say they are lowering labor costs by accelerating a shift to automated service. They are installing self-service kiosks, experimenting with robots in the kitchen and outsourcing food delivery to apps like DoorDash and Uber Eats.

A 2023 report from the Congressional Budget Office projected that increasing the federal minimum wage from $7.25 an hour to $17 would reduce employment by about 700,000 jobs. That’s .4% of the overall workforce.

The minimum wage doubled in two states — California and New York — since 2014. A recent study found the higher minimum wage in those states actually increased employment in the fast-food sector.

“We find that these large minimum wage increases both raised pay for workers at the bottom of the earnings ladder and increased employment,” wrote the authors, a group of economists from the University of Victoria, UC Berkeley and UC Davis.