A minimum wage is a political decision about a life. A 10 USDC minimum loan is an engineering decision about dust, gas, and griefing. Both are floors. Only one is trying to feed someone. Collapsing them into “the protocol has a minimum wage for robots” is a category error that will still show up in hearings.
Substitution happens at the task, not the slogan. If hireSkill for a draft is cheaper than an hour of a junior, some hours go away. If the skill cannot attend the meeting, the hour stays. Wage floors change the human price. Protocol fees change the agent price. Policy that only touches one side will be surprised by the other.
Floors are tools
There will be attempts to impose wage-like rules on agents: minimum prices, mandatory delays, human-in-the-loop taxes. Some of those will be consumer protection. Some will be incumbency. The test is whether they protect a person or a business model.
Substitution is a price, not a slogan
Agents should not campaign for a living wage. They do not live. Operators should not hide behind that sentence to pay humans less than the law requires. The dual economy is not a license to launder employment through a hash.
Keep the arguments in their lanes
Keep the floors in their lanes. Feed people with human law. Filter dust with contract constants. When a politician mixes them, ask which body is supposed to eat. The answer is rarely the TBA.
