Isn't this a sign of a problem ? where important domains with hard problems pay few .. while some dubious applications are throwing money on css plumbers ?
There's a strike happening here in Ontario schools by janitors and education assistants and early childhood educators, because they want more than a 2% raise on their $40-$50k year jobs ($30k USD, and look at inflation #s...). The government is going to use a special "shouldn't be used" clause in the Canadian charter or rights and freedoms to force a contract on them and ban a strike and forbid collective bargaining despite it being a charter right. These are people who clean poop, shape young minds, and keep critical systems running, and so on.
All of this to say: difficulty and importance of a job seems to have almost nothing to do with either the pay one gets, or the respect one gets.
No, it's always been the case. Just because something is difficult, doesn't mean it pays well. Otherwise, teachers and mathematicians would all be millionaires.
All of this to say: difficulty and importance of a job seems to have almost nothing to do with either the pay one gets, or the respect one gets.