I remember some years ago, having one of those One year wonders tell me that it was obscene that I made more money than him because he went to college and had an Engineering degree. Being pragmatic about the situations and deciding that using the moment to educate the young man instead of a nice hot cup of DILAGAF I explained to him certain facts.

Construction Costs would not be lowered by cutting my wages, Non-Union Co. know what the price of a Union job is and usually bid only 1% lower while paying 30% lower wages. Where does that 29% difference go?
My wages were bargained in good faith with these companies and WE deemed what our services were worth, not some money grubbing suit who would sell mommy out to stuff his account.
If they were successful in lowering my wages and profit margin still needed to be increased, were did he think they would find ways to lower costs. Did he really believe that just because he had a degree that they would not cut his wages?
Finally if they were paying me peanuts why would they need to pay professional wages to supervise the work. Those wages would be directly proportional to the workers wages.

They will always use someone else' wages to keep others down. How can we pay you X amount when all you do is flip burgers?