I said a couple weeks ago I was running out of ideas for Weekly Worldbuilding posts. Past me was mistaken. As of now, there are at least 6 more topics waiting in my drafts. So if you like these, that's good news! If you don't... ...sorry?
Anyway, this week is a heavy topic. The economy, jobs, and wealth. However, it's going to be a lot of rambling since I can't keep money things straight and orderly in my head.
Abilities make the biggest difference in terms of wealth. This isn't because people with abilities are always paid more. They self select jobs where their ability will be rewarded with a bonus. A strong man isn't special if he's just another pencil pusher at an accounting firm, but a construction company will pay at least 10% more to get him to haul steel beams around. A powerful telekinetic at a job site like that, especially one where a crane is usually needed will make at least 20% more.
Superheroes aren't vigilantes in this setting. They're also not referred to as superheroes. What we would think of as a comic book hero is just someone who has both a bounty hunter's and private investigator's license. Most people don't want both. Most people don't have the skill set for both. Finder, for instance, only has a PI license. This means he's can't legally detain anyone or start a fight. A bounty hunter really just fights and captures people who law enforcement have already identified as criminals, no batman detective breaking and entering activities.
People without abilities compete most equally against people with abilities in the realm of business and finance. Sure being telepathic might give an individual a leg up on the competition, but at the highest levels, people know how to shield their thoughts from telepaths. Someone good at their job can read their business and predict trends just as well without an ability.
There are a lot of jobs for telepaths, especially in law enforcement and education. There's an entire section of the school system that teaches telepaths almost exclusively. Of course they need a lot of teachers to monitor their telepathic students for cheating. Academic integrity enforcement is one of the easiest jobs for a telepath with the right skill set to get. They don't have enough people to fill all the positions available. Telepaths in law enforcement make a surprisingly high salary for a public worker. They're needed for the swat teams. Not hostage negotiation, but criminal suppression. For violent criminals with superhuman abilities, they can't always be subdued with physical force or tazers. The next options are either tranquilizers, which don't work on certain people, have limited range, and get expensive for the really fast acting strong stuff, or a telepath coming in and forcing someone to sleep or stop moving. They're not the last resort, people can still learn how to shield themselves from telepath suppression, but the telepaths are the last line between a person and the cops using lethal force.
Overall, wealth is not easily predicted by whether someone has an ability or not, despite how it appears. There are a lot of hidden costs associated with having an ability. That strong man has to fix a lot of holes in his house when he forgets throwing the remote on the couch will launch the remote into the ceiling. Clothes get expensive when you're a pyrokinetic who doesn't want to risk walking around half nude after they set themselves on fire accidentally. There's also health care expenses that are side effects for a lot of abilities. Normal people tend to forget about these things if they don't live or share finances with someone with an ability that has to take all of this into account. Sure some people with abilities get paid a lot more than some normal people. It's just a lot harder to tell where someone is financially just by their job.
Still Brainstorming:
Other jobs that require people with abilities
The witch incantation industry
Do the fae care about money?
The limits of PI and bounty hunter licenses
The role of college and higher education in getting a well paying job
Is intelligence more important than fine ability control in education?
