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The humanoid robotics revolution is just around the corner. Test models are already working in factories alongside human beings across the world, while AI companies develop new foundation models designed to help robots navigate their environments as easily as humans do. But computer “brains” are useless without the skeletons that give humanoid robots their formand the many components that make up those skeletons need to come from somewhere. Alongside bearings, which reduce friction, motors, and gears, the average humanoid robot relies on dozens of screwskey components that convert the rotational motion produced by a motor into linear motion. Traditionally, ball screwswhich feed a series of balls through a screw shaft and nuthave been the primary type used in robotics. But a new component is set to supercharge humanoid motion and could become the next must-have physical part. Over time, planetary roller screws should represent the majority of screws used in humanoids, researchers at Morgan Stanley wrote in a February 2025 note. Planetary roller screws are a next-generation alternative to ball screws, able to withstand higher loads and last longerboth vital qualities for the wear and tear humanoid robots are expected to endure over their operational lifetimes. Teslas Optimus uses four planetary roller screws in its calves, and theyre also used by Figure AI, Agility, 1X, and the majority of Chinas humanoid robot manufacturers. One China-based expert, Jack Li, research and development and product manager at Nanjing Process Equipment, a Chinese screw manufacturer, told investment bank Jefferies that the total market for the screw is already $1.8 billion, and is likely to grow at a compound rate of more than 30% over the next five years. Actuatorsdescribed as the crown jewel of the core moving parts of robotsconvert rotary motion into linear motion, a crucial function for robotics and especially for humanoid robots, says Jonathan Aitken, an expert in robotics at the University of Sheffield. Theyre highly accurate as we get good precision in conversion from angle to linear distance travelled, he explains. Traditionally linear actuation isnt good for load, rotational is. This gives the best of both. So far, the use of planetary roller screws in humanoids has been limited by their costa result of the specialist skills needed to manufacture them reliably, which only a handful of companies worldwide currently possess. The bulk of the cost of a humanoid will be in the actuators, says Scott Walter, widely considered one of the worlds leading experts on robot design. Walter is chief technical advisor for Visual Components, a manufacturing production design company. Each bot needs 40 or more,” he says. “So that is a huge supply need. Researchers at J.P. Morgan estimate that reducers and roller screws account for around 33% of the average humanoid robots “bill of materials,” or cost of parts. The average planetary roller screw sells for between $1,350 and $2,700, according to the investment bank. While Walter admits, The logical choice would be just to use rotary actuators at all the joints, since the actuators axle can also form the joint, cost concerns are currently holding back their widespread deployment. That looks set to change as engineering and manufacturing expertise grows alongside demand, driving down production costs. China appears to be in the driving seat when it comes to controlling the supply of planetary roller screws in the years ahead. Because of drone manufacturing, China already had a large installed base of small actuator manufacturers, says Walter. While not having exactly the same requirements, they were close enough to allow China to produce enough rotary actuators at scale for initial bot prototypes, he says. They are in the drivers seat if rotary rules the day. Chinese companies are betting on the potential of planetary roller screws to meet future humanoid demand: In October 2024, Shanghai Beite Technologytraditionally a manufacturer of auto partsannounced a 1.85 billion yuan ($260 million) investment to build a facility dedicated to the production of planetary roller screws. The West will likely need to compete by developing its own planetary roller screw supply chainand fastgiven the potential impact of increasing U.S. tariffs and the ongoing trade war with China, where most of these components are made. The dirty little secret is even if actuators are assembled stateside, the important components are still coming from China because few companies have the expertise and equipment to produce vital components outside of China, says Walter. Planetary roller screws are precision equipment. For humanoids, they need to be small and efficient, he adds. Yet theres a complication. The supply chain does not yet exist because the designs are not yet locked, Walter explains. Nor is there a consensus on the size of this supply chain. But quick action may be required if the humanoid robotics revolution turns out to be even a fraction of the size some experts predict.
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Where legislatures have refused to boost pay and benefits for workers, advocates have often taken the fight straight to voters. In recent years, voters in Michigan, Missouri, and Nebraska overwhelmingly backed higher state minimum wages and guaranteed paid sick leave at the polls. But despite that strong showing of support, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are now trying to water down or even roll back the measures their constituents approved. In November, 58% of Missouri voters approved Proposition A, which raises the state minimum wage to $15 by 2026 and requires employers to provide paid sick leave. That level of support, said Missouri Jobs with Justice Policy Director Richard Von Glahn, stems from the fact that the measure speaks to the experiences that voters have in their lives and where the economy is not working for them. Typically, when his organization was out gathering signatures, voters expressed surprise that the minimum wage was not already $15 an hour and that paid sick leave was not already a guarantee. The vote shows it was the clear will of what voters want, Von Glahn said. But in March, the Missouri House passed legislation repealing the paid sick leave measure and undoing the states decades-long practice of regularly updating the minimum wage to keep up with inflation. If the bill becomes law, wage increases will cease in January 2027. To justify such changes, Republican state Representative Mitch Boggs said, Of course the people voted for it. It would be like asking your teenager if he wanted a checkbook. Theyre going to vote for it every time. Republican state Representative Scott Miller put it another way: Just because 57% of the people that voted that day voted in favor of something, that doesnt make it right. Theyre taking away the choice of businesses to engage in [the] free market. Its not just lawmakers trying to undo the will of the voters, however. A group of businesses and individuals have asked the state Supreme Court to strike down the measure entirely, arguing that it violates the state Constitutions single subject requirement. In their lawsuit they claim that wages and paid sick time are separate issues that should not have been combined in a single measure. Von Glahn pushed back on that argument: Wages for hours worked and wages for paid sick time, thats part of total compensation. As a working person, if I have money in my check, do I care if its from paid sick days or from hours that I worked? Nebraska voters passed their own paid sick leave ballot measure by a staggering 74% this past November. A majority of voters in every legislative district supported it, and the support was higher than for the lawmakers themselves. Thats not the only measure state lawmakers want to change, however. In 2022, nearly 59% of voters approved a measure that will raise the states minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2026 and keep increasing it in later years to keep up with inflation. Nebraskans really care about their neighbors, Jo Giles, executive director of the Womens Fund of Omaha, said of the support both measures received. Paid sick leave, she said, is a common sense solution. As in Missouri, many voters she spoke to while gathering signatures were surprised it wasnt already guaranteed. And yet efforts to get lawmakers to take action themselves had not succeeded. We tried for many years, Giles said, including during the height of the pandemic when workers were getting sick by the thousands. But bills never moved forward. After many, many attempts, we determined, Okay, were not going to get it through the Legislature, so lets ask the people what they want, Giles said. It was pretty clear what the people wanted: They wanted paid sick leave, they wanted to increase the minimum wage. That hasnt stopped Nebraska lawmakers from seeking to change the measures approved by their constituents. Last year, two state lawmakers introduced bills to exempt young workers from the higher wage. The Nebraska Legislature is officially nonpartisan, but one of the lawmakers was aligned with Democrats and the other with Republicans. The effort failed to advance in the Legislature. This session, those two lawmakers and others are seeking to weaken both the minimum wage and sick leave policies. Legislative Bill 698, introduced by a Republican-aligned senator, would exempt companies with 10 or fewer employees from the paid sick leave requirement. Yet the measure voters passed already makes an allowance for small businesses by allowing those with 20 or fewer employees to provide their workers with fewer days of leave. The bill would also exempt agricultural workers and those under 16 while eliminating employees right to sue their employers if they arent given the leave theyre owed. Giles argued that these changes gut the core aspects of the initiative. Another bill introduced this year, Legislative Bill 258, meanwhile, would allow employers to pay people younger than 19 a lower minimum wage and would eliminate future minimum wage increases. Beyond the impact on workers themselves, Giles believes lawmakers actions could harm the entire state. What does that mean for our overall democracy if people cannot exercise their voice and implement policies that are popular? she said. Residents votes should be honored. In both Missouri and Nebraska, conservative lawmakers have led the charge to roll back ballot measures. In Michigan, Democrats have joined the effort. Back in 2012, Mothering Justice, a nonprofit that advocates for issues impacting women of color, started pushing for a paid sick leave bill in the state Legislature, but Republicans stood in the way. It became clear that if we wanted to get this done, we would have to go straight to voters, said Danielle Atkinson, the nonprofits founder. Her group was poised to do so, submitting more than 280,000 signatures to put both paid sick leave and a higher minimum wage on the ballot in 2018. There was always overwhelming support from voters, she said, because it was extremely popular and needed. But then the Republican-controlled Legislature stepped in that September. Over united Democratic opposition in the state Senate but with some Democratic support in the state House, lawmakers passed legislation to raise the minimum wage and institute a paid sick leave requirement before voters had the chance to weigh in. That wasnt because lawmakers agreed with the ballot measures; they did so explicitly to come back and gut both measures later on, something that would have been much harder had the issues passed by ballot measure. State Senate Republican Majority Leader Arlan B. Meekhof explained the vote this way: The Senate adopted the policy to preserve the ability for this Legislature and future legislatures to amend the statute to better fit our state and our economy. And lawmakers did in fact later amend the legislation by voting to delay the minimum wage increase by nearly a decade, scrap future inflation adjustments and preserve a lower tipped minimum wage. Lawmakers also exempted employers with fewer than 50 employees from paid sick leave and scaled it back for everyone else. The groups behind the ballot measures fought back in the courts, arguing that what lawmakers did violated the state Constitution. That took time, energy, and a considerable amount of resources, Atkinson said. But we thought it was important to fight for the will of the people and direct democracy. Last summer, it seemed they had finally won: The state supreme court found the Legislature had indeed violated the state Constitution and reinstated the original wage and sick leave measures. The new benefits were set to go into effect on February 21. We were extremely hopeful, Atkinson said. We were like, Great, on to the next fight. But the Legislature wasnt done intervening. An hour before midnight on February 20, lawmakers passed bills to preserve a lower tipped minimum wage, delay implementation of paid sick leave, exempt young and temporary seasonal workers, reduce guaranteed unpaid time off for employees of small businesses, and strip workers of the right to sue employers for violating the new rights. This time, nearly half of Democrats in both chambers joined with all Republicans to pass the measures, and Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer signed them into law. The governor had heard concerns about implementation of the new law, according to a statement from spokesperson Stacey LaRouche, while the bill was under consideration, and supported a bipartisan deal that protects servers and wait staff, while also providing certainty to small businesses and helping Michigan remain competitive. Business groups, particularly the Michigan Restaurant and Lodging Association, had lobbied hard for the tipped minimum wage changes. It was very clear that lawmakers of both parties were being influenced by the business community, Atkinson said. The restaurant industry did a very good job of manufacturing outrage. Atkinson is frustrated that those tactics succeeded. Michigan is a place where were known for workers rights, and we had an opportunity to be a pretty big part of a larger movement to eliminate a sub-minimum wage, and we missed it, she noted, referring to the lower wage employers can pay tipped employees. Having Democrats join in was even worse. When you see Democrats introducing legislation thats undermining workers rights, it makes . . . an easier target for Republicans to do the same, she said. Its really unfortunate that that came from members of a party that claims to be for workers rights. This piece was originally published by Capital & Main, which reports from California on economic, political, and social issues.
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For years, baby boomers have been aging in place and keeping home turnover low. And now, not only are boomers holding onto their homes, theyre also the generation buying the most propertyboxing out millennial homebuyers for only the second year since 2013. Millennials, who range from 26 to 44 years old, have largely dominated the housing market for the past decade. The only exceptions to this rule have occurred in 2023 and 2024, according to data from the National Association of Realtors (NAR). Between July 2023 and July 2024, the share of millennial homebuyers dropped to 29%, down from 38% a year ago. Meanwhile, boomers (ages 60 to 78) accounted for 42% of home purchases. In a plot twist, baby boomers have overtaken millennialsthe largest U.S. populationto become the top generation of home buyers, Jessica Lautz, NAR deputy chief economist and vice president of research, said in a press release. Whats striking is that half of older boomers and two out of five younger boomers are purchasing homes entirely with cash, bypassing financing altogether. What does this mean for aspiring homebuyers? While this is only the second time that boomers have overtaken millennials in recent years, it does represent a larger pattern: First-time homebuyers are getting older. In 1991, the median age of first-time homebuyers in the U.S. was 28 years old. In 2024, it was 38 years old. As real estate expert Lance Lambert put it, the median first-time U.S. homebuyer in 2024 (age 38) has been out of high school for 20 years but is also only 24 years away from the earliest age at which they could receive Social Security benefits (age 62). One main driver for this shift is the fact that both cost of living and home affordability have increased significantly in the past several years. Since 2020, the income needed to afford the average American home has shot up by a whopping 79%. Starter homes are a thing of the past for many aspiring young homebuyers. Still, some young Americans are managing to become first-time homebuyers, and theyre establishing new standards for home ownership along the way. Per the NAR report, 3% of homebuyers over the past year were Gen Zers. Gen Z is slowly entering the housing market with the lowest household income and theyre more likely to be single than other buyers, Lautz said. Of the generations, Gen Z had the largest share of single, female homebuyerspresumably as many women put off marriage or choose to remain single.
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