That’s all very possibly true, but wages are not set by the level of skill or focus or risk or personality or hours of the worker. They are set by the relative bargaining powers of the employer versus that of the employee.

For example, a janitor for the Bay Area Rapid Transit District is paid over $79,000/year because of the bargaining power of his/her union. The manager of a Dunkin Donuts who typically works over sixty hours per week and who has a great deal of responsibility is paid about $35,000/year.

The differential has nothing to do with the difficulty of the work, the responsibility, the knowledge, skill or the number of hours but rather the different levels of bargaining power of the people who fill those two jobs.