While visiting and chatting with an old friend who lives in a rural area, a man's teenage daughter joins the conversation and shared that she wants to work on a farm after she graduates from college and that farming is her passion. She shared the graph that follows from the Bureau of Labor Statistics that she recently obtained that shows the average wage (salary) by profession. She was very confused about why different professions pay people different wages. She was expecting the pay rate for people who work in the farming industry to be paid more than other “unnecessary” professions. While sharing the data with you, she asked the following questions: Why do workers in business and financial operations get paid more than those who work in farming and health care? After all, farmers make food and health care workers help people’s health. I don’t get it, but who decides how much people in certain professions get paid? I mean who decides how much I should be compensated for my work? Why do salaries for certain occupations go up sometimes, and they go down other times?