Many difficult or important jobs in our society pay surprisingly low wages. For example, babysitters, social workers, nursing home workers, seasonal lifeguards, and paramedics, all typically make around $20 per hour or less, but provide services that can save lives.

This phenomenon can be explained via the supply and demand model we developed back in chapter 3, or from related material we learned here in chapter 12 if we view the worker as a business owner selling their labor services.

We know that if barriers to entry into an industry are low, then businesses cannot expect to earn long-run profits. This implies that jobs that require little or no training (read: low barriers to entry) should not expect to get paid much.

For this chapter's learning portfolio assignment, please:

• Identify a job that you think earns surprisingly little given the task(s) performed
• Discuss the training necessary to get the job
• Discuss what you think the job "should" earn, and try to justify it
• What do you think would happen if the government mandated the wage you suggested above? Please apply the lessons from the material on price floors from chapter 4 in your response