[daniel1212]

Although it’s tempting to say that the market has decided that software development pays $61 an hour while picking lettuce pays $16, that observation falters on the fact that farm owners can’t actually find workers at that low wage. (If you offered computer programmers $16 an hour and made them work in the hot sun, you would have trouble finding enough of them too.)

False equivalence/analogy. How many hours does it take to learn computer programming vs. picking lettuce? How easy is is to get a job doing either? Meaning which job requires little training and helps the unskilled? And what would many others choose: being outside in the sun and fresh air or being stuck in an office 9-5?

[Alberta's Child]

And even if picking lettuce paid $61/hour and computer programmers were paid $16/hour, the agricultural sector would STILL have a problem hiring enough workers.

The problem with any farm job like picking lettuce is that it is seasonal and temporary by definition. Very few people in a modern, affluent society are going to have any interest in that kind of instability in a job. That’s why it was mostly done by kids and family members before migrant labor became common.