"The wages of goldsmiths and jewellers are everywhere superior to those of many other workmen, not only of equal, but of much superior ingenuity, on account of the precious materials with which they are intrusted.
We trust our health to the physician: our fortune and sometimes our life and reputation to the lawyer and attorney. Such confidence could not safely be reposed in people of a very mean or low condition. Their reward must be such, therefore, as may give them that rank in the society which so important a trust requires. The long time and the great expense which must be laid out in their education, when combined with this circumstance, necessarily enhance still further the price of their labour."
Ref: The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith: Chapter 10: Of Wages and Profit in the different Employments of Labour and Stock
It is interesting to observe that even during Smith's time, the rationale for higher wages for certain classes of people were predicated more on intangibles (e.g trust) rather than on actual economic output or results. The unfortunate aspect is that these intangibles still matter a lot today - people trust a Phd on Wall Street to be better at investing other people's money but the evidence, especially the financial ruin brought about by unregulated activity clearly suggests otherwise.
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