New research from Apollo Global Management confirms a trend American workers have already sensed: artificial intelligence is not triggering mass layoffs, but it is systematically eroding their paychecks. A paper published July 30 by Apollo chief economist Torsten Slok and co-author Sania Edlich uses actual usage logs from Anthropic’s Claude to show that workers in AI-exposed fields are experiencing “wage compression” while employment numbers remain unchanged. Companies are capturing the productivity gains, and workers are getting left behind.
The Corporate Capture of Productivity
Slok, who spent much of the year arguing AI's macroeconomic impact was invisible, now finds the fingerprints in wage data. The analysis pivots from theoretical “exposure” models to observable behavior, revealing a clear mechanism for corporate profit-taking. “Analysis of actual Claude usage data shows workers in AI-exposed occupations are experiencing slower wage growth, while employment levels in these occupations remain unchanged, suggesting companies are capturing AI productivity gains through wage compression rather than workforce reduction,” Slok wrote. This dynamic serves corporate bottom lines and investor returns, not the domestic workforce that economic nationalism demands we prioritize.
“Analysis of actual Claude usage data shows workers in AI-exposed occupations are experiencing slower wage growth, while employment levels in these occupations remain unchanged.”
Worker Resistance as Rational Response
This wage suppression provides context for survey data showing nearly a third of workers admit to sabotaging their company’s AI systems. A June 2026 survey by Software Finder of over one thousand employed U.S. workers found half actively resist new AI tools, with 45 percent citing fear of becoming replaceable. The resistance is economically rational: the survey indicates resisting workers earn roughly 20 percent less on average than adopters, but this gap reflects who deploys the tools—typically managers and higher earners with job security—not that adoption spares wages from compression. Only 16 percent of workers believe their company is adopting AI for genuine business value.
For American workers, the message is unambiguous. The promised productivity revolution is being routed directly to corporate balance sheets, compressing the wages of the very people whose labor trains these systems. Policymakers concerned with domestic prosperity should take note: without intervention, AI deployment represents a wealth transfer from workers to owners, regardless of headline employment figures.