&gt; If there is always someone out there willing to take a job at breakeven (paycheck to paycheck living), worker pay will never go up.<p>Which is why you don&#x27;t compete on price, but on service. If you can do for the business what other people cannot, your pay will keep going up and to the right for as long as you want.<p>Mind you, this could be as easy as rephrasing &quot;I know Ruby&quot; to &quot;I use Ruby to increase revenue&quot;.<p>For instance, I am right now hiring a copy editor. I&#x27;ve spoken to plenty of people with a variety of hourly rates. Some said &quot;I am really good at grammar and I am diligent and very detail oriented&quot;. Some people said &quot;I can make your writing clearer&quot;.<p>Who do you think I liked more?