Robots vs Human Labor Costs

This cluster debates the relative costs of robotic automation versus human labor, including factors like wages, maintenance, programming, and economic incentives for replacing workers with robots.

➡️ Stable 0.9x Career & Jobs
3,917
Comments
20
Years Active
5
Top Authors
#9429
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Keywords

www.wfft US AI SF BI robots robot cheaper labor humans human wage jobs automation robotics

Sample Comments

Google234 Jun 4, 2021 View on HN

Fair worth is probably less since robots can do much of the eorl.

sschueller May 9, 2025 View on HN

Humans are cheaper than robots too...

dhuntermn Mar 1, 2017 View on HN

what happens when human labor (and life) is cheaper than robotic output? storm the castle with a swarm of useless humans, or put your really expensive robot at risk?

sp332 Oct 17, 2017 View on HN

It's a lot cheaper to keep a robot than a human operating at that pressure.

dmitrygr Aug 20, 2015 View on HN

The flip side of demanding $15/hr -> robots become the cheaper option

notatoad Feb 10, 2018 View on HN

as long as people are cheaper than robots, it's not a question of "needing" people.

GianFabien Jun 26, 2022 View on HN

Agree.Robots are complex machines and thus the R&D to get them to work well is huge. And they need (re-)programming for every change in the tasks. It all adds up to a very large capital outlay, considerable ongoing operating costs and thus financially is not competitive with minimum wage labor.

sungju1203 Oct 3, 2018 View on HN

this is great. they now have more motivation to replace them with robots.

JoeAltmaier May 7, 2013 View on HN

Only until a robot is cheap enough.

petra Jul 14, 2020 View on HN

There are companies renting robot labor by the hour(or per work done). It often comes out cheaper than hiring a person.