Watching colleagues at one of my jobs manage to save, travel occasionally, and enjoy real vacations — while I was stuck barely covering rent, food, and old debts on the same "above minimum" salary — I kept asking myself the same question: why does this gap exist? Is it skillset? Education? Lack of opportunity? Or is the government simply failing to fix the system?
I want to walk through each of these honestly, because the answer isn't as simple as picking just one.
Theory 1: It's a Skillset Problem
This is the most common explanation, and it's not entirely wrong — better skills can absolutely lead to better pay. I experienced this myself moving from banana chip production into bookkeeping, where a more specialized skill unlocked dollar-based income for the first time.
But skillset alone doesn't explain the full picture. I've seen highly skilled workers still stuck earning barely enough, simply because the market they were selling their skill into didn't have the purchasing power to pay them what that skill was worth. A great skillset sold into a broke market still nets a broke result.
Theory 2: It's an Education Problem
Education is often treated as the great equalizer — get a degree, get a better job, get better pay. There's truth in that, but it's incomplete too.
I didn't have a college degree when I started pursuing accounting-related work. I was told outright, by people at a company I wanted to join, that they only hired degree holders — even for a role I offered to take unpaid just for the experience. That door stayed closed. But the freelance bookkeeping market didn't require a degree at all, and that's where I found real traction.
Education can open specific doors. But it's not a universal key, and plenty of degree holders are stuck in minimum wage roles too, simply because the roles available to them don't pay enough regardless of the credential.
Theory 3: It's a Lack of Opportunity
This is the explanation most often repeated by policymakers: not enough jobs, not enough industries, not enough investment. The proposed fix is almost always "create more opportunities."
Here's the problem with stopping at this explanation: opportunity without purchasing power doesn't actually solve anything. You can open more businesses, more job openings, more branches — but if the workers filling those roles still can't afford much beyond survival, you haven't actually fixed the gap. You've just multiplied the number of people experiencing it.
Theory 4: It's an Incompetent Government / Broken System
This is the least comfortable explanation, and probably the one people are quickest to either fully blame or fully dismiss. But some structural realities are hard to ignore. Foreign ownership limits under the current constitution cap outside investment at 40% in many industries, discouraging the kind of large-scale capital that could spread real economic activity beyond a handful of metro hubs. A highly centralized government structure also means opportunity concentrates in a few cities, forcing people from the provinces to migrate just to access it.
These aren't the workers' fault. They're structural conditions that shape how much purchasing power circulates — and where.
So Which One Is It?
Honestly — it's not any single one of these in isolation. It's the interaction between them. A worker can have decent skills, reasonable education, and access to jobs, and still stay stuck at minimum wage if the surrounding system caps how much value that combination can convert into.
That's an uncomfortable answer, because it means there's no single fix, no one course to take or one degree to earn that guarantees escape. But it also means the responsibility isn't purely personal — you're not failing because you're not skilled or educated enough. You may simply be operating inside a system that was never designed to convert effort into real purchasing power.
What Actually Moves the Needle
In my own path, the biggest shift wasn't earning a new certificate or waiting for policy reform — it was choosing to build something where the value I created and the value I captured were directly connected: a bookkeeping business serving clients whose currency and economy already reflected stronger purchasing power. That's not a fix for the whole system, but it's a real, actionable move within it.
If you've been asking yourself the same question — is it me, or is it the system — the honest answer is: probably some of both, and it's worth understanding exactly which parts you can actually influence.
To know more about my services, writings — connect with me here — here's my website: https://www.kylenelsonomac.com/
Mahal na mahal kita. Mahal na mahal ka ng Diyos. Faith without action is nothing.