I agree that society doesn't believe this. But I disagree on your explanation as to why. The biggest reason why people don't believe this is because they have n

I agree that society doesn't believe this. But I disagree on your explanation as to why. The biggest reason why people don't believe this is because they have no idea as to the amount of work that's being done. If you hear a cashier is being paid $16.00 an hour when the only time you witness them is when you're buying a bag of Doritos and a bottle of Pepsi where they scan your card and bag your groceries you might think that they're being overpaid. You're witnessing ten percent of their duties, where the other ninety percent have them doing the stocking work around the register, doing cleaning, keeping track of inventory, sorting and organizing checks to be cashed, verifying and indexing wire transfers, and keeping appropriate change in the register. Most low paying jobs have the highest amount of effort. Currently, working in fast food is a much more demanding job that requires more effort than being a mechanical engineer, surveyor, or project manager. And yet those three will make four times what the fast food worker makes because their jobs are perceived as having more value to society, their education much more complex and thus more costly, and the positions they fill being very few and far between. People of all economic ranks think that those three perform more effort in their positions than the fast food worker and thus they are more worthy of the increased wages, when in reality they did more preparation beforehand (college, apprenticeships, working shit jobs like fast food) so that their positions require less effort now. Note that this has nothing to do with the real or perceived impact of their actual jobs. In contrast the fast food worker cannot frontload the effort in preparation of a better position later, because the demanding but menial work is the better position compared to being homeless or on social welfare programs. This is one of the reasons why rates of burnout, depression, and anxiety are so high in those that work services and retail compared to other industries.