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With remote & commodification via higher level (easier) frameworks, you can start to see real differences. E.g. UI has a much lower barrier to entry and aggregated data sources like Paysa may start to show this difference via lower salaries for the 'UI' job title.

however there are still pockets where the difference doesn't matter. e.g. if you're geographically gate-kept in places like "The USA" or "The Bay Area" or "New York" or "San Francisco". the "brand" can carry the majority of market rate while the "actual" skills becomes minor.

the way that unions work is that they decrease the activity of the market by combining separate individuals playing their own game into one super entity. less players, less market, less price discovery, more "contract" power. "Pay us X!" the gatekeeping is the cell boundary!

this is why unions HATE those who don't join the union because they're literally waging war against the union's reason for being despite the personal motive being something more mundane like feeding a family.

I remember this reddit post where someone mentioned that the "bad factory" his mother had to work at was a godsend because prior to it she had to be a prostitute. many moralizing union arguments is just anger at the people who "sold out".

yet... say you bought GME and could stand to make a large windfall. OR you would make only a small one but you need that injection of cash NOW. can you *really* hate those who make this choice?

the former requires choosing to give up individual sovereignty to "be a part" of the union and thus is the REAL test of it there's any real brotherhood or if it's just a temporary racket held together by duct tape anger.

the latter asks for literal sacrifice which no sane person would agree too unless the union could also "take care of you" or "make you whole." (note how mafias and cartels can basically be viewed as unions against government)