I don't think its so much credential based gatekeeping that gives professions bargaining power. You don't have to look any further than game development vs fina

I don't think its so much credential based gatekeeping that gives professions bargaining power. You don't have to look any further than game development vs financial services development. The former get exploited to the point of lunacy, the latter are extraordinarily highly paid and respected despite doing basically the same job with a different coat of paint. And its exclusively because there are more people qualified for both jobs trying to go into the former than the later. Its the same effect as to how SpaceX can underpay its employees. Fundamentally all an employer cares about, and all that will determine if you are paid more, is if there aren't many other people applying for the same job. Even high skilled jobs requiring extensive qualifications - an opening for a CS PHD will always pay way more than a History PHD because there is so much less competition for the later pool of candidates, even if there is a greater performance disparity between a "bad" and "good" CS PHD than a history one in a similar capacity. Appraising candidates definitely factors in, but even in highly skilled disciplines like game development, as long as the employer can assume a strong likelihood of getting good qualified candidates to replace you they will exploit you. Its when the prospect for replacing you is in any way questionable that suddenly your wages and respect will rise.