We're all paid what we're worth

I don't see, on average, how anyone is underpaid or overpaid in a free market, with the exception of those making minimum wage (who could be overpaid). In a free market professions are paid what they are worth to the employer and what the employee is willing to work for. Basic supply and demand. If it is really hard to find qualified people for a particular job, then the employer has to raise the wage until it becomes attractive for the employee. On an individual basis, it is true someone could be a bad value and normally things would self-correct and they are either fired or receive smaller raises. Unfortunately, if you throw in unions and tenure, that breaks the normal free market, and prevents individuals from being correctly compensated (whether more or less) according to their worth. However, professions on the whole are still governed by supply and demand.

That is why you see athletes and actors with large salaries. They a) make a lot of money for their employer and b) good ones are in very low supply. However, something like education is not a money making profession, but its value is set by what the tax payers are willing to pay for the service. Since there is no shortage of teachers who can do the job (compared to athletes who can throw 95 MPH fastballs) that wage can be held much lower. So whatever the current compensation for a profession, it has been set by the free market. Thus I find it hard to accept frequent comments about how certain profession are under or overpaid.