After thinking on this a bit I believe it is mainly down to accountability. The project manager could really be anyone, they just agree to oversee the project and take the blame if anything goes wrong. They don’t necessarily need low level knowledge of the subject matter (though it would help a bunch I imagine) they need to be able to organise people and track progress as well as think fast and put out fires where necessary. They need someone with authority and responsibility so perhaps this is paid so well as getting someone willing to make decisions and be accountable for them especially when large sums of cash are on the line is a big deal.

On the other and should educated or trained grunt workers be paid as little as they are?…hell no. But I do think they are their own worst enemy when it comes to pay. In the more appealing fields it is common for highly skilled and talented workers to work for less and less just because if they don’t someone else will due to massive amounts of competition for jobs. Similarly why grad schemes and volunteer work is bad for industries as it devalues the trade. Why hire a professional when you can hire a grad straight out of uni work them like a dog for a year then swap them out when they are burned out for another batch of fresh grads.

It also doesn’t help that a lot of trade workers study their field due to passion and personal interest thus will work for less because they enjoy or want a job they enjoy. Mainly in art fields in my experience but no doubt occurs elsewhere.

There is also a big issue in the west with companies outsourcing the actual work on projects to eastern countries who can afford to work for much less due to numerous reasons. This means there is a ton of workers in the west who cannot get a foot on the ladder as there are so few jobs. A western company can hire one skilled worker and then have them manage a team of eastern contractors and just set the quality bar and monitor standards. When the project is done they simply end the contract with the outsourcing company and all they have to do is have the one worker on the payroll.

This has created a complete gap in the jobs market because graduates cannot get on the ladder to begin their journey to n years experience and why a lot of employers say they cannot find experienced skilled workers in their fields (on the rare occasion they need one).

This is obviously my opinion the economics of all this goes way over my head but this is what I believe.

My basis for comparison was a few searches in my local area. You are right many of them were contract roles but the rate of pay was still way above that for more hands on workers. Im not saying that they do not deserve it just that the deciding factor in wage seems to be responsibility rather than ability. Which isn’t necessarily wrong imo just surprised me being a skilled worker I never thought much about these things just ploughed on with my goals.

I would probably agree that interest in skilled work is certainly proportional to wage. I can of course see why this is but its a shame that this almost punishes people for choosing an attractive career but obviously thats just a symptom of competition.

The PM’s getting paid more didn’t surprise me it was the size of the difference between the rates of pay that did. It seemed very much like the PM was valued much more than the workers themselves which makes sense the sheer difference was astounding.

Anyway I wasnt causing a fuss just really surprised me. My area is quite industrial too so there where quite a lot of these advertised online. Probably not a good overall representation.