Question: Within each of the following pairs of workers, which worker is likely to earn more and why? (It may be obvious which one is paid more. The real issue is to explain why one is paid more than the other is.)

a. a carpenter working at the top of a 600-foot cooling tower of a nuclear power plant or a carpenter who frames 'houses

b. a clerk in a grocery store or a lawyer

c. a lawyer with one year of experience or a lawyer with six years of experience

d. an attractive salesperson or a homely salesperson

e. an autoworker in a factory who works the day shift or an autoworker in a factory who works the night shift

f. an economics professor or a corporate economist

g. a history professor or an economics professor

h. someone trained as a keypunch operator (typist who types input commands on cards to be read by a mainframe computer prior to the existence of computer terminals) or someone trained as a personal computer specialist

i. your favorite local blues band that plays regularly at a nearby campus bar or David Bowie

j. a lazy stupid plumber or a hardworking, bright plumber

k. the best carpenter on the planet or the best writer on the planet