Instead of working longer hours for a company I would be dependent on, and beholden to, I developed a sideline.
I bought fixer-upper houses, improved them, and rented them out. The rental real estate sideline allowed me to be much more independent at my day job, which made me more valued and higher-paid.
When I retired early, the I sold the rentals and did a tax-deferred exchange into properties in our new town.
I worked the long hours, but built a business that I owned and that is our cushion against inflation in retirement. Plus, I can pass it to our children as an inheritance.
Look to the engineering field and study “automation”.
My guess, when the minimum wage reaches the breaking point and every physical labor job is too damn expensive to pay for, call the “Automation Engineers”, they’ll automate the jobs. Now that minimum wages are approaching the $12-$15 per hour range, we see the trend starting in the food service industry, I expect it will expand to many other areas.