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"Unskilled" is only unskilled because no proper training is provided. But you immediately notice if a cashier or cleaner is skilled or not. A cashier will know all the codes, all weird payment methods etc. And a cleaner needs to know the right tools for work, what chemicals to use and so on.
But if you block training and professional development in those jobs than yeah... they're unskilled and you have asshole justification for paying poverty wages.
No job is unskilled. Not all jobs are skilled.
I work in a "skilled" position where it is completely reasonable to expect to be able to hire someone and have to spend very little time training them. There will be a bit of onboarding as with any job, but the nuts and bolts of how to do their job.
I'm not saying "unskilled" jobs don't deserve a living wage, far from it. I'm just saying there's a reason there's a difference between the two, and one commands a premium.
Janitor here, you can definitely tell between skilled and unskilled in my field
Any labor is skilled labor. The only difference is training time.
I think that's a far more useful way to look at it than a simple binary of skilled and unskilled.
I'm a bit fuzzy on how the continuum really relates to wage, because ultimately it's a question of supply and demand.
I guess if you have a rarer skill because it takes longer and is harder to acquire proficiency at, demand will be higher so you won't go for jobs that are easier to acquire the skill for, thus, jobs with a bigger supply of workers? And so that drives the pay offered.
Oh look. They put farmers and tradesmen in with fucking Starbucks counter staff
It's because this comic strip was made by a teller who is outraged that trades people and farmers require prior training and are not considered "unskilled" jobs (One where no prior training/certification/education is necessary)!
A serious answer: it's more about supply and demand. Unskilled is work that nearly anyone can do. Lots of supply, so wages are lower than jobs where a smaller number of people can do it. I don't think there's any conspiracy there.
Another approach is to divide unpleasant work evenly under everyone who can do it like in the novel The Dispossessed. This will be less efficient since each one needs to acquire the skill and won't reach perfection because they don't stay long enough but to hell with efficiency.
So yes, it is skilled labor and if you call it "unskilled", you have no excuse not to do it from time to time.
There's also the fact manual labor is seem by Anarresti as something to be proud of.
Also, Chevek doesn't directly mention it in the book, but in reality some people simply enjoy hard jobs and would gladily do them if they can make a good living out of them.