This morning I was able to clear my mind a bit about how we compensate people.  It turns out we are using desperation to get the worst jobs done.  Sure many jobs are unskilled or low skilled but there is always some skills needed and some talents.  Instead of paying more for jobs we don't want to do and don't like doing we rely upon people getting hungry enough to do these jobs.  As long as we keep a ready supply of hungry people around these jobs will get done.

How can it be moral to rely upon desperation to get people to do things they wouldn't otherwise do?

It seems to me that we need to figure out how to support a minimum stipend so people don't feel forced to take a job then we need to let the market forces drive the wage up for jobs no one wants to do but need to be done.