The premise is that software engineers are underpaid. Not that their salary is bad or lower than the national average, only that the value they produce is worth

The premise is that software engineers are underpaid. Not that their salary is bad or lower than the national average, only that the value they produce is worth more than their compensation. Ergo they should get paid more. Fairness really has little to do with it. Work is a business transaction extract as much compensation as possible. One very effective tool to achieve that is collective bargaining. Because the fairness argument is always so one-sided. It is always the worker that should mind if he or she is making enough, never the owner. Apple is making hundreds of billions in profits on overpriced products and no one bats an eye. But if Apple engineers unionize to try and increase their salaries, you'd get lots of calls about how they are selfish and already making enough money.