I agree that it doesn't account for blue collar workers, but it wouldn't surprise me if the balance, purely in terms of financials, was actually that unbalanced.
I'm not saying it's correct or fair that a trader sat at his desk can contribute £20 million to a country's "output", while a builder, working his backside off could maybe add £100k, but that's the world we live in...
If you're a builder manager you can make more, but if you look at residential housing, the people at the bottom aren't making shit. Mostly it is a poorly regulated, non-unionized, highly dependent on under the table pay industry.
But anyway about it, if there is suddenly an influx of manual/physical labor poured into the market, labor prices will drop far below the living cost and all hell will eventually break loose.
I'm not saying it's correct or fair that a trader sat at his desk can contribute £20 million to a country's "output", while a builder, working his backside off could maybe add £100k, but that's the world we live in...