[oivey]

The ditch diggers dug the trenches to run internet to your home. Your internet connection has only went up in value/utility, yet the people who dig those trenches now don’t make any more than they did before.

The idea that employees are paid according to their value is entirely wrong. Employees are paid according to the labor market. The price of labor on the market is significantly controlled by supply, not the value to the employer of employing someone. Besides that, employers have much more power in the employment relationship. This is true even in tech. For example, the FAANGs got caught colluding with one another to suppress salaries via secret anti-poaching agreements a few years back.

[coryrc]

They learned to use modern power equipment and make more than minimum wage. We shouldn't be forced to pay more to people who won't switch from using a hand shovel or whatever the modern equivalent is - cash register attendant? When people were "clerks" it paid an okay amount, but should it be paying more than an "okay" amount? Why should their buying power increase? Why should it track the salaries of people who made computers orders of magnitude cheaper and better? The people whose technology made mRNA vaccines possible for everyone to have?