Why are so many roles paying so little?

IT is a worse field now than when I went into it, by far. The roles are vastly more complex and the pay has mostly stagnated or declined at all but the very top end. Help desk and sys admin jobs that paid 50K-80K back in 2005 still pay that now — and that is in nominal dollars, so that is an enormous pay cut in real dollars.

If I were to do it all again and having to start fresh, I would not go into this field. There is very little chance of advancement now, the pay is low, and the chance of your job being offshored or outsourced is high.