🔍 Read the full analysis: Where AI Fits Into The Wage-Setting Process on ThorstenMeyerAI.com
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TL;DR
A November 13 article from ThorstenMeyerAI.com examines how wages are set, using Germany’s minimum-wage process and economic history as examples. It argues that AI may raise productivity, but whether workers receive higher pay depends on bargaining power, labor-market conditions and policy; the cited material does not show that AI gains automatically lead to wage increases.
ThorstenMeyerAI.com published an explainer on November 13 examining how wages are set and where artificial intelligence fits into that process. The piece says AI can raise worker output, but does not by itself determine whether pay rises: that depends on labor markets, bargaining and rules, including wage floors set by governments.
The article opens with Germany’s minimum-wage increase, effective January 1, 2026, from €12.82 to €13.90 an hour. It says about six million people received a raise as a result. The change followed a proposal from Germany’s Minimum Wage Commission, which has six voting members split between unions and employers, alongside two nonvoting academic advisers. The government made the increase binding by regulation.
The article describes wages as the result of several forces rather than a single automatic formula. It revisits Adam Smith’s account of wage-setting as a bargain between workers and employers with different interests, and John Bates Clark’s theory that, in a market without friction, a worker’s pay corresponds to the additional output they produce. The source presents the latter as a useful economic benchmark, not a complete account of how wages are determined in practice.
For the AI question, the article cites a study in which an AI assistant increased the number of customer-support issues resolved per hour by 15% on average. That figure concerns output, not wages. The source does not provide evidence that the workers in the study received higher pay as a result, and it stresses that productivity gains can be distributed through employers’ decisions, collective bargaining, market competition or regulation.
Infographic 01 · The number to remember
73.5%: where Germany's income goes
The labour share: pay for employees as a share of national income.
Out of every €100 of German national income, 2025
Labour share, Germany · % of national income
The share rose in 2024 and 2025 partly because company and investment income fell in a weak economy while pay kept rising (IW). A higher share is not automatically good news. Definitions matter: measured against GDP, or with the self-employed counted differently, labour shares come out differently.
Sources: Destatis, key national accounts aggregates (as of 30 Sep 2026); M. Grömling, IW-Kurzbericht 20/2026 (12 Mar 2026).
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Who Receives AI Productivity Gains
The distinction between higher output and higher pay matters as more workplaces adopt AI tools. If an assistant helps employees complete more tasks per hour, employers may see increased output or lower costs. Workers’ wages do not necessarily rise by the same amount: the source frames the result as dependent on who has bargaining power and on the rules governing pay.
That makes wage-setting a practical question for employees, employers and policymakers, not only an economic theory debate. A productivity statistic alone cannot establish that workers are better paid, or that a tool has improved their overall working conditions. Readers evaluating claims about AI and jobs need to distinguish measurable changes in output from changes in wages, hours and job security.
Germany’s minimum-wage example shows one route by which pay can rise independently of an individual worker’s negotiation: a commission recommends a rate, and government regulation makes it binding. Collective agreements and individual negotiations operate alongside such legal floors. The example does not establish how every country or industry will distribute AI-related gains, but it makes clear that institutions help shape the outcome.
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From Wage Bargains to Legal Floors
The article places today’s wage questions against a short history of competing explanations. In 1776, Adam Smith wrote that workers and employers had opposing interests in wage negotiations and argued that employers often had greater ability to wait. In 1817, David Ricardo proposed a “natural price of labour” tied to subsistence. In 1899, John Bates Clark argued that, in a market operating without friction, workers would receive the value of their marginal contribution to production.
The source then points to policy interventions that set minimum pay. It cites Australia’s 1907 Harvester judgment, the United States’ first federal minimum wage under the 1938 Fair Labor Standards Act, and Germany’s introduction of a general statutory minimum in 2015. These examples illustrate that wage outcomes have been shaped by legal rules as well as market forces and bargaining.
The article also gives a measure of how pay is distributed across the German economy: it reports that 73.5% of national income went to employees in 2025, counting wages, salaries and employers’ social contributions. It cites a study in the Quarterly Journal of Economics that found Germany’s 2015 minimum wage raised pay for affected workers without reducing employment. Those findings concern a specific policy and period; they do not settle how future AI gains will affect wages.
““The workmen desire to get as much, the masters to give as little, as possible.””
— Adam Smith, as quoted in the ThorstenMeyerAI.com article
The Missing Link Between Output and Pay
The source does not establish whether the customer-support agents in the cited study received higher wages, retained more of the productivity gains, or experienced changes in hours or job conditions. It also does not identify the study’s sample size, dates, wage outcomes or comparison details, so the 15% figure should be read as an output result, not a general prediction about AI’s effects on pay.
More broadly, the article does not quantify how much of future AI-driven productivity gains will go to employees rather than employers or consumers. That distribution will vary by workplace, occupation and bargaining arrangements. The Germany figures and minimum-wage history provide context, but they cannot by themselves predict wage outcomes in other labor markets.
Wage Outcomes Will Require Evidence
The article presents no new wage policy or announced change to Germany’s minimum-wage process beyond the increase that took effect on January 1, 2026. The next evidence needed to assess AI’s role in pay-setting would include studies that track wages alongside productivity, hours and employment after AI tools are introduced.
For workers and employers, the central question remains how gains are handled in negotiations and workplace decisions. For policymakers, the German example shows that legal wage floors can set a baseline, while collective bargaining and employer practices shape pay above it. Until wage data accompany productivity measures, claims that AI is raising workers’ pay remain unproven by the evidence cited in the article.
Key Questions
What is the main point about AI and wages?
AI may increase how much work employees complete, but higher productivity does not automatically mean higher wages. Pay also depends on bargaining, labor-market conditions and rules.
What did the cited customer-support study find?
The article reports that an AI assistant increased the number of issues customer-support agents resolved per hour by 15% on average. It does not report a matching wage increase.
How was Germany’s 2026 minimum wage set?
Germany’s Minimum Wage Commission proposed raising the hourly rate from €12.82 to €13.90. The government made the change binding by regulation, effective January 1, 2026.
Does the article show that AI has raised wages?
No. The cited evidence describes an increase in output, but does not establish whether the workers received higher pay or how any gains were divided.
Source: ThorstenMeyerAI.com
