Bill Gates Renews Push for Robot Tax Tied to Payroll Levies

Bill Gates is reviving his proposal to tax robots that replace human workers, arguing companies should pay the same FICA payroll tax whether a unit of labor is delivered by a person or a machine. "You define a unit of labor and say, independent of whether that's delivered by a human or robot, you are paying the same FICA tax that a human worker would pay," Gates told New York Times columnist Ezra Klein in an interview that aired this week. FICA, the Federal Insurance Contributions Act tax, funds Social Security and Medicare. Workers pay 7.65 percent of wages and employers match it. Gates argues the current code nudges firms toward automation because machines can be written off while payroll cannot. The idea, first floated in 2017, would raise money for retraining and a stronger safety net. In an August essay of nearly 6,000 words, Gates warned office jobs are already being hit "modestly" by AI and blue-collar jobs are next.