Blue collar bias prevails, so the pay stinks, and that's why wackos find work in the industry.
The famous song title describes a state of mind stemming from three seemingly unrelated, but ultimately linked, items I came across during an otherwise routine day at the office.
First, was a bewitching story in the May 10 Wall Street Journal describing a new contract settlement with airplane mechanics by Northwest Airlines. The agreement upped top pay to $37 an hour, which projects to $77,000 a year. Top mechanics had been making only $54,000 under the old contract. Two ways of looking at that. One is to gasp at the 43 percent hike in pay. Or, one could conclude those folks were woefully underpaid before. The latter is my point of view.