Entry-level roles get labeled as "low paying" like that automatically makes them exploitative. That's a shallow read.

They're not exploitative. They're entry points.

Let's run a simple thought experiment. Imagine every role in the market paid top-tier salaries. Sounds great on the surface. Until you realize what that actually means.

Now every single job is competing for top-tier talent. If you're a business owner and every role pays $120k, why would you hire someone with 12 to 18 months of experience when you can hire someone with 10 years who's already proven? You wouldn't. Nobody would.

That wipes out opportunity for anyone who isn't already elite.

The current market works because it's uneven. Different companies have different margins, different runways, different constraints. That creates separation in pay. And that separation is exactly what creates opportunity.

A 10-year veteran isn't applying for a $55k role. That lane is open for someone earlier in their career. Someone who wants experience, wants to build a portfolio, wants a shot. That's how people get in the game.

Everyone loves to say "every company should pay top dollar." Sounds nice. Completely ignores reality. If that actually happened, a huge percentage of people would be locked out of entire industries because they simply couldn't compete yet.

We've already seen this play out at scale.

Look at China over the last few decades. They didn't start as a manufacturing powerhouse. They started as the cheapest option. Low cost, lower perceived quality, but accessible. If their production costs matched the US from day one, nobody would have manufactured there. It wouldn't make sense to ship products across the world for the same price.

But because they came in low, they got volume. They got experience. They improved. And now they don't just compete, in some industries they outperform. They earned their position through access and iteration.

That's exactly what entry-level roles do for people. They give access. They give reps. They give experience. They give a starting point. And that matters more than people want to admit.

This whole conversation kicked off because someone posted a $55k remote copywriter and brand strategist role and people lost their minds. Acting like it was some senior-level position being underpaid. It's not. It's a $55k role. That tells you exactly what it is.

And I guarantee there are hundreds of applicants right now who would gladly take that job. People currently making less, people trying to break in, people who understand what that opportunity actually represents.

The person I'm thinking about is someone who's looking for a way in. They take the role, show up, learn fast, and absolutely crush it. They earn their $55k for a year or two, build real skills, build real proof, and then move on to something better. Three or four years down the line their life looks significantly different. Better income, better options, better trajectory. All because they took what other people were busy calling exploitative.

That's what I value about these roles. They give people a shot at bettering themselves. And that's a win in my book.

But most people won't think that far. They react to a number, attach a narrative, and stop there.

And if that's how you process things, you were never going to read this far anyway.