> The only choice is to either automate, which will reduce the labor requirements, or raise prices and hope that customers won't just go down the street. But they will, they will go down the street--until everyone's prices go up and there is nowhere else to go.

That's why governments created a minimum wage. If the salaries are written into law, there is no place down the street to go. That's also why environmental and hygienic regulations are so successful. Those things simply can not be done without government intervention.