According to Inc, data from workforce analytics firm Revelio Labs shows a dramatic and widening wage gap since January 2023. Following ChatGPT’s public release, salaries for the top 25% of earners—those making over roughly $100,000—have surged more than 30%. Meanwhile, wage growth for lower-paid roles has stagnated at only about 10%. The report directly links this to AI, stating “automation pressures are disproportionately suppressing wage gains in lower-paid roles.” Demand for high-paying jobs remains strong, while demand for lower-paid positions has fallen over the past two years. This flips the common script that AI is primarily a threat to white-collar professionals.
The AI Wage Squeeze
Here’s the thing: this isn’t about AI directly replacing low-wage jobs en masse. It’s about leverage. The data shows that “average AI-adoption rates are strongly negatively correlated with wage growth at the bottom of the distribution.” Translation? In roles where employers are investing heavily in AI tools, they feel less pressure to raise wages. Why would they? If a task can be partially automated or augmented, the bargaining power of the human in that role diminishes. So wage growth stalls. It’s a quiet, economic squeeze, not a loud, headline-grabbing layoff. And it’s creating a perverse incentive: the more an employer invests in AI for a low-wage role, the less they feel they need to invest in the person doing it.
Why High Wages Are Thriving
Now, look at the top of the pay scale. The relationship between AI adoption and wage growth is “much weaker.” Why? Because demand for specialized, technical talent is still roaring. These are the people who build, implement, and manage the AI systems. Their skills are in such hot demand that it outweighs any theoretical automation threat. The report notes wage growth there is “driven by continued demand for specialized and technical talent.” Basically, if you’re the one wielding the AI tool, you’re golden. If you’re in a role where the AI tool is wielded *near* you, your prospects get murkier. It’s the difference between being the programmer and the data-entry clerk whose workflow the programmer just streamlined with a new script.
The Human Interaction Loophole
But it’s not all doom and gloom at the bottom. The report found exceptions where low-wage jobs are still seeing solid growth: sales, legal support, and protective services. Why these? Revelio calls them “labor intensive jobs with currently low propensity for automation.” They require complex human-to-human interaction, situational judgment, and physical presence—things AI and robotics still struggle with. This highlights a crucial, immediate path for workforce stability. The jobs safest from the AI wage squeeze aren’t necessarily the most technical; they’re the most *human*. So, the emerging map is clear: opportunity and wage growth are “increasingly concentrated at the top,” with a few resilient, people-centric roles holding the line elsewhere. For everyone else in the middle-to-low wage bracket? The pressure is on.
