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Comment by avidphantasm | Hacker News Reader

Because they are professionals who do work that can be dangerous to them and the general public?

True, but that begs the question of why every trucking company doesn't pay as much as Walmart.

Because they operate under a different business model that is willing/able to risk hiring amateurs. Not dissimilar to why FAANG will pay a software developer many hundreds of thousands of dollars each year all while Mom & Pop are hiring some kid to develop their software for $10 per hour.

Trucking is a massive industry. Most trucks you see on the road aren't mom-and-pop operations. If we want to just limit the conversation to giant retail operations, Amazon pays roughly 25% less than Walmart.

Amazon has a completely different business model to Walmart. If a truck doesn't arrive and the shelves are left bare, you're never going to know. They'll just ship the product off to you later when they can finally get the truck there. They can easily take the amateur hour risk.

Costco, which is likely the closest analog to Walmart in terms of scale and logistical requirement, pays the same.

Eh, it doesn't work like this unfortunately; pay is never a mirror of the dangerousness, the utility, or the dirtiness of the job. I would say that usually it's the contrary: the more essential a job is, the less it is paid.

No, pay corresponds with the skillset and how replaceable you are (moreso how replaceable). Walmart truck drivers are highly compensated because trucking is a lonely and relatively uninteresting job to do. Doing that for many hours requires a certain type of person and would mentally wear down most people.

Walmart requires a consistent level of output which they hope can be maintained by keeping truck drivers happy with high pay. Other trucking companies can afford to have some drivers leaves and thus pay them less because they have some leniency for delays which Walmart cannot/will not tolerate

It's all supply and demand.

Dirty and dangerous work attracts fewer workers.

High-utility work is worth more to the employer so there will be more job offers.

When you see dirty, dangerous, high-utility work that pays poorly, it's because there's a ton of people who are willing to do it.

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