Imagine a world, where every single person is highly educated in their respective fields. And also, there also exists enough jobs to support this high number of skilled workers. In this world, how would the salary of unskilled workers, like janitors or masons be or lumberjacks be? My first thought was that their salary would be huge since now so very few people would opt for that, but then I realized it isn't possible for, say a school, to hire such expensive janitors.
Actually no, as the people are highly skilled, the technology would be very advanced. Meaning the cost of robots would reduce. And compared to skilled people getting paid for the common chores, it would be cheaper anytime.
I just realised this. Who would mine the ore? There's also mining of fuel and even building of factories which require unskilled labour
Robots solve those issues too. Planning would be done by the highly skilled individuals, robots would implement them. Then we're either rendered extinct or enslaved, as we gave our creations the keys to replication and the intelligence to utilize it.
Of course the robot, they're efficient and cant protest if overworked..... and lastly, the main reason if the worker is unskilled you would see a lot of problem, accidents while working, pay is insufficient according to the worker, the result of work is somehow not reaching the target and most of the problem was caused because the "unskilled" factor
Well I expect we will soon be faced with this question directly as our population declines and our standards of living increase. It will be a race between the shrinking workforce and our ability to replace as much human labour with robots as we can. Any single janitor would have to be able to cover a far larger amount of ground due to labour shortages, and would therefore have to have higher level equipment and skills to compensate. Therefore I think they would soon find themselves paid similarly since they'd just be advanced in their own fields. Also being better educated on a large scale contributes to declining populations from what I've read so I'm assuming that your proposed world is also facing this issue.
I don't think such a high advanced and skilled robot would be cheaper than a worker, even in the most advanced society. The initial investment is insane and raw materials are becoming scarcer and more expensive. Resources on earth are limited (look f.e. how fracking in the USA made glas prices more expensive, because they need a lot of sand for this technology) Also don't forget such roboter needs a LOT of energy to function and don't let me begin with maintanance etc. I understand that simple robots are cheaper, f.e. in a car factory, but even they can't do everything and are very limited in their movements, because it's exponentially more expensive to build and maintain a more complicated one. There will always be a "break-even point" in the argument humans vs. roboter and I believe we can lower this threshold a lot more, but we can't lower this threshold endlessly, because there is a lowest point, that is determined by other factors, such as the limited raw materials on earth or the number of humans available on the planet (the more people are buying your product, the more you can distribute your production cost) etc.
Excusez-moi, building of factories is skilled labour you filthy bourgeoisie! What, you look down at the proletariat?
I was 11 as I built my first lego factory. It can't be that hard in real life Also, now I have additional "factorio" skills ;D
I think the pay scales would be similar to how they already are, it would just be expected that all employees/job applicants were more educated. Like how it’s already been happening in my country since decades ago (according to the previous generation). They say people need degrees for jobs that did not need them before, and Bachelor’s degree is considered basic for jobs that used to only need a high school or Associates degree. So I think it’d be more of the same trend.
I agree with @mir . The advance jobs still need more training than a normal job. Some like me prefer an above average salary, but have the freedom to do what I want. With family or otherwise. With more advance jobs. You have more deadlines, responsibilities and just more time at work. I don’t want a desk job. I like traveling. Working with my hands. I control when I work. As long as I put in my 8 hours. I can call off if I need to. I don’t want to be a manger and work for only money. I had the chance to make a lot of money, but I refuse. I prefer my family