Something something "you're paid more for what ya know/your expertise on something vs just being an easily replacable cog in a machine".

Not saying I agree with it all that much, but I think that's the general idea, anyways.

It takes more work to get the 3hour job, so the job itself is easier. It takes less work to get the 12hour job, so the job is harder.

Less people can get to the "easier" job, so those people are seen as more valuable.

I've yet to see the big wigs even do 3 hours of actual work during a work day, let alone the kind of physical labor that factory floor workers have to perform all day long. In the last company I worked for (and I'm now retired) there were 34 managers on my floor, and 3 of us doing sales, customer service, repair, delivery, and distribution for the company. The managers mostly spent time on Amazon, but often had meetings to decide what they could do to prompt us to work harder with more duties.

It really doesn’t. Sure, some designer in an ivory tower may have designed the product, but they sure as hell aren’t the person that builds hundreds of them.