I've run into other problems about the value of my labor.
Market people would argue that someone gets the wage they do because of something like the 'law' of supply and demand, more or less (even if academics have gone way past this, this is something I hear all the time). People who wash dishes or work in fastfood, for example, get paid the lowest because there are any number of people who could do the work, so the thinking goes. But if you've ever worked in a restaurant, you know that is not true at all.
The management class on behalf of capital can hire any number of bodies for fastfood, but many can't do the work very well. Doing a good job at a restaurant was one of the hardest jobs I've ever done.
Another low-paying job I had was security guard (though this one paid just above the minimum wage at the time, so 4 dollars an hour in 1988) . There was one shift I always had to pull because I could memorize the elaborate route the guard had to walk and drive through a mining pit and two factories (the idea was that you logged into all these stations scattered around so the company could certify to the insurance firm that there was someone there all the time and the place wouldn't explode or burn down without detection). Most at the security firm couldn't remember the route, were afraid of the machinery in the factories, or were physically incapable of completing the route on the hour for 8-10 hours. The guy who did the job before me was also attacked by intruders (apparently someone trying to steal explosives from a shed at the quarry--though I only saw racoons, opossums, deer and bears).
My being able to do it only resulted in my pulling more work at that place, not higher wages or anything. If the job went unfilled, the company had to pay a higher insurance rate I presume.
Here is another problem: I think the most valuable work I do now is volunteer work for a professional organization. Actually, among other things, I've spent many hours of my 'free' time (evening, weekends, vacations, etc.) writing and editing for several organizations' publications. The publications we produce are of a 'professional' quality. Yet I've never received a single payment for any of this. I do it because I CAN do it and because it is a challenge that I'm not going to get in my paid job.
It's also easy to get sucked in. It's like I can't back down from the challenge of seeing a project through to success, even though I know I'm giving up huge chunks of my life for this unpaid work. Also, when it's time to volunteer, a group volunteer, then many don't do anything and cite their limited time, and then those who have the time often prove incapable of getting anything done without money as an incentive. The first time I was a bit surprised by this, but after a while the only thing that surprised me was when there was a NEW name among those who actually volunteered, stayed the course til the work came, and then actually got the work done well and on time.
But what is the value of that labor or work or whatever? A lot of it, if a handful of people like me didn't do it, wouldn't get done. There is no long line of people wanting to do it, the line gets shorter when people find out the time committments, and then list of those who actually do something other than put an item on their re'sume' make the list very short indeed.
How much work of value never gets valued in the economy at all (I don't care what sort of analysis, left, mainstream, liberal, whatever, it is.)
Charles Jannuzi