rockSlayerThere is no such thing as "unskilled labor"
Any labor is skilled labor. The only difference is training time.
agent_flounderI think that’s a far more useful way to look at it than a simple binary of skilled and unskilled.
I’m a bit fuzzy on how the continuum really relates to wage, because ultimately it’s a question of supply and demand.
I guess if you have a rarer skill because it takes longer and is harder to acquire proficiency at, demand will be higher so you won’t go for jobs that are easier to acquire the skill for, thus, jobs with a bigger supply of workers? And so that drives the pay offered.
I’m a good example of the second half of your comment. I’m kind of a sysadmin for linux systems. I’m pretty OK at it, but far from an expert. However, the systems I administer are far from average. They’re highly specialized server clusters built for a highly specialized task, in a highly specialized work environment. Most people don’t care about these kind of systems, so the list of potential employers is pretty small for me. But those who need the skills involved are willing to pay extremely well. I got here because I just so happens to be a computer guy who has worked with these systems a lot, and I know every component pretty well, to the point where I recently got poached by a competitor. The result is that I have the same pay grade as the doctors in my tiny town, but I get to literally sleep on the job as long as things are running smoothly.
Hopefully my doctor finished hischool, though.