Baseball statistics have this concept WAR (Wins Above Replacement), basically if by putting in this player, how much more wins did they bring in than some other player. This is what's really big in salary, but is tied together with another variable, how much money is that win worth?
If I am hiring sandwhich makers and pay them $10 an hour, which brings in $15 an hour of revenue, then some other sandwhich maker is twice as good at making sandwhiches, how much do I pay them? Probably not $20 an hour, since them being faster might still only net $15 of revenue an hour. That increase in revenue is what drives salary. The downside to a bad sandwhich maker is very small, its at most a few messed up sandwhiches.
Tom Cruise makes 1000x another actor for the same movie because the fact that Tom Cruise is in the movie brings in some large multiple of revenue, and Tom Cruise takes a cut of that increase. Sports work in the same way. Software, Finance, and to a point Sales are the "normal" jobs out there that work in a similar way because its largely non-fungible. An amazing trader or dev might make the firm 100x revenue than an average trader. A bad dev or trader brings in Negative value as they make things worse.
This is why teachers don't make more money, a better teacher does not bring in 10x revenue to a district, a worse teacher doesn't create 10x losses. Even though teachers have a large societal effect, there is no direct revenue analysis you can do to show what the replacement value is.
If I am hiring sandwhich makers and pay them $10 an hour, which brings in $15 an hour of revenue, then some other sandwhich maker is twice as good at making sandwhiches, how much do I pay them? Probably not $20 an hour, since them being faster might still only net $15 of revenue an hour. That increase in revenue is what drives salary. The downside to a bad sandwhich maker is very small, its at most a few messed up sandwhiches.
Tom Cruise makes 1000x another actor for the same movie because the fact that Tom Cruise is in the movie brings in some large multiple of revenue, and Tom Cruise takes a cut of that increase. Sports work in the same way. Software, Finance, and to a point Sales are the "normal" jobs out there that work in a similar way because its largely non-fungible. An amazing trader or dev might make the firm 100x revenue than an average trader. A bad dev or trader brings in Negative value as they make things worse.
This is why teachers don't make more money, a better teacher does not bring in 10x revenue to a district, a worse teacher doesn't create 10x losses. Even though teachers have a large societal effect, there is no direct revenue analysis you can do to show what the replacement value is.