How does technology fuel inequality in the workforce?
“The result is an alternative to the standard economic modeling in the field, which has emphasized the idea of “skill-biased” technological change — meaning that technology tends to benefit select high-skilled workers more than low-skill workers, helping the wages of high-skilled workers more, while the value of other workers stagnates. Think again of highly trained engineers who use new software to finish more projects more quickly: They become more productive and valuable, while workers lacking synergy with new technology are comparatively less valued.”
“It revealed that the technology coincided with an increase in wages across the labor market, but whereas the average employee saw wages rise by just 2.3%, those in managerial positions saw a 9% rise, and those in the boardroom saw an even more impressive 19% boost to the income. The hypothesis proposed by the researchers is that the new technology allowed the more productive workers to be even more productive, thus widening the income gap between them. This is common with most new technologies, as it tends to improve the relative position of skilled workers. In other words, technology often does the routine tasks for us, thus allowing highly-skilled people to focus more on non-routine, abstract tasks that really set them apart. The routine tasks are often the bread and butter of the low-skilled worker however, so the new technology harms their prospects.”
These can be discussion questions:
Would you consider the jobs that are above the 50% Net Likely on the graph to be “low-skilled”? Why?
What is a way that governments can solve the issue of “low-skilled workers”?
How can people, mainly older people & “low-skilled workers”, develop these “high skills”needed to adapt with the rise in technology and automation?
Would you buy McDonald’s if a robot was serving you food?
Is there even a way to counter automation or is it just something we need to live with?
Since automation and technology seem to be creating inequality in certain fields in terms of job availability and income, how do you think students will go about deciding what jobs they want to work or what companies they want to work with in the future?
