AI is making workers more productive. Their paychecks aren't keeping up

Economists and labor researchers are increasingly asking why the gains from AI-driven productivity aren't flowing to workers

A junior associate at a law firm works faster now. With AI handling document review and legal research that once took days, she bills more hours than she did two years ago. But her salary hasn't changed. Maybe her bonus was even cut.

That dynamic — productivity rising, compensation stagnant or falling — sits at the center of a growing debate about who actually benefits when AI makes workers more efficient. The answer increasingly appears to be: not the workers.

The bargaining power problem

The gap between productivity and compensation is not new. According to the Economic Policy Institute's Productivity-Pay........

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