There’s an important debate about wage inflation.

The inverse relationship between wage inflation and the unemployment rate is known as the "Phillips Curve." It makes sense that wage inflation would rise or fall depending on whether the unemployment rate was relatively low or high. However, I have been arguing that the Phillips Curve might not work as well given increasing globalization, innovation, and competition.

In his Barron’s column this week, Gene Epstein argues that wage growth is about to take off. He bases this forecast on a version of the Phillips Curve model devised by Jason Benderly of Applied Global Macro Research. In addition to the level of the unemployment rate, this model includes the change in the jobless rate, labor productivity, and the after-tax profit margin.

I note that the unemployment rate remained at 5.5% during March, the lowest since May 2008, yet wage inflation remained subdued for all workers at 2.1%, while falling recently to 1.8% for production and nonsupervisory workers. On the other hand, as we noted last week, wage inflation over the past three months through March for all workers jumped to 3.9% (saar), the highest since December 2008. That might have reflected the one-shot impact of the widespread hike in the minimum wage at the start of the year. Or else, the Phillips Curve is starting to work, finally.

If it’s different this time, then robots might be one of the reasons. The 4/23 WSJ reported that in Oxnard, California, “A 14-arm, automated harvester recently wheeled through rows of strawberry plants here, illustrating an emerging solution to one of the produce industry’s most pressing problems: a shortfall of farmhands.” The 4/24 NYT reported, “Faced with an acute and worsening shortage of blue-collar workers, China is rushing to develop and deploy a wide variety of robots for use in thousands of factories.”

Today's Morning Briefing: Great Debates. (1) The link between easy money and secular stagnation. (2) Summers vs Rogoff. (3) Debt super-cycle. (4) Time heals all wounds. (5) Asia’s debt binge. (6) Glut of gluts. (7) Will China solve its debt problem with a stock bubble? (8) Lots of burdensome debt burdens in Japan, Eurozone, and China. (9) US corporations borrowing for financial engineering. (10) A cold spring following an icy winter. (11) Dallas slipping on oil. (12) Are robots bending the Phillips Curve? (13) Lots of debatable subjects including Fed, oil, dollar, Grexit, MENA, and the meaning of life. (More for subscribers.)