Robots are hurting US workers wages, regional Fed study finds

Workers become more reluctant to ask for significant pay hikes out of fear that their employer will turn to automation to replace them, the economists said. — AFP

Automation has "contributed substantially” to reducing the portion of national income that goes to US workers over the past two decades, according to a new study by economists at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco.

Despite the lowest unemployment rate in around 50 years, the so-called labour share has fallen to about 56% from 63% in 2000 and the increased use of robots and other technology has been an important driving factor, the economists Sylvain Leduc and Zheng Liu wrote in the report published on Sept 30.