Dive Brief:
- Salaries and demand for high-wage roles are growing at a faster clip than that of low-wage jobs, according to Revelio Public Labor Statistics. Since January 2023, high-wage salaries have risen more than 30%, while low-wage salaries have only climbed by around 10%, widening the wage divide.
- At the same time, artificial intelligence adoption rates in low-wage occupations were negatively correlated with wage growth, but only weakly correlated with wage growth for high-wage roles, per Revelio.
- “This suggests that automation pressures are disproportionately suppressing wage gains in lower-paid roles, which is contrary to narratives that AI is mostly impacting high-earning, white-collar jobs,” Revelio experts wrote.
Dive Insight:
Wage gains were greatest for low-income workers for a brief period after the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic, but since then, “that pattern has reversed,” Revelio found. Likewise, demand is now strong for high-wage roles, while job postings for low-wage positions have fallen steadily for nearly two years.
Automation has affected wage growth in lower-paid occupations, namely those that involve predictable, repetitive tasks that machine-learning systems are starting to perform, Revelio found.
“The result is a labor market in which many employers appear comfortable expanding high-paid headcount but are becoming more cautious about hiring or raising pay in roles more susceptible to automation,” Revelio experts wrote.
Roughly 12.6% of current U.S. roles face a high risk or very high risk of near-term displacement due to automation, according to a report released by SHRM earlier this year.
“The most exposed groups are those with skill sets that emphasize highly routinized tasks that can increasingly be done using advanced robotics and/or software,” according to the SHRM report.
Now, more than half of U.S. workers fear job displacement due to artificial intelligence, which is almost double the levels recorded last year, according to survey results released in November by KPMG.
Revelio said the trends “point to an economy that is once again pulling apart.”
“As AI adoption accelerates, these divergences may grow sharper and there will be once again strongly increasing wage inequalities,” Revelio found.
