I don't know, in my experience, most employers compensate based on the asset value of the employee, meaning based on performance, dependability, loyalty and tenacity.
If someone wants to be a career entry level employee, just put in his hours, refuse to work any OT when needed, just have the attitude that "that's not my job. I get paid to do this and this only," he is supremely replaceable. There has always been and always will be an abundant pool of unmotivated workers to draw on, and the marketplace will always compensate them according to the laws of supply and demand.
On the other hand, there is the employee who makes an effort to learn the details of all the jobs in their respective work areas or departments so as to be useful in more than just "what they're paid for," who are willing to work late or extra days when their employers need them and are always there to help the next person if they've completed their own work or if the other employee looks like he's falling behind.
Most of the jobs I've held working for other people, I started at entry level, mainly because when I was younger I wasn't sure what I wanted to do, and gave my fullest efforts to my employers. Every single job with a company of any size saw me getting fast promotions and generous raises.
Today, I see a lot of people who seem to believe that it's up to an employer to prove himself (or in the case of a large corporation, itself) to the hired help.
That's not the way it works. It's up to an employee to prove his worth to whoever is paying the freight -- the employee didn't share the financial risks of starting the business and he doesn't share the headaches or any of the exposure the employer endures in the event of a downturn in business. The employee doesn't contribute to the rent/bills/business taxes or even the insurance an employer has to carry to cover loss of assets or employee accidents/injuries. The employer also has to match the Social Security premiums taken out of the employee's pay check.
People don't go into business as a charitable endeavor to support the lazy or unmotivated, they go into business to make profits. Again, from my experience most of these people are more than happy to share a larger amount of the profits with those employees who are most instrumental in helping them make those profits, whether by directly bringing in money or by helping keep things running smoothly -- a happy employer is one who knows his people have his back, that he doesn't have to worry about their end of things being efficiently handled without the need to look over their shoulder, so to speak.
Like they say, pay commensurate with performance and asset value.
When I see someone "earning" $40.00 an hour with a metric ton of benefits just to hose out some garbage cans and sweep because he has a union contract and he's happy to spend 40 years doing just that and nothing more, I truly wonder why the employer hasn't relocated.
I don't know, in my experience, most employers com... (