I think that Adam must be accounted as the first worker.  He left a paradise in Eden where no work was required, no processing of food, no collection of fruits and certainly no slaughter of animals. It is debatable that Eve seduced Adam to eat of the fruit of the tree of knowledge and henceforward launched careers of couture because leaves just weren’t enough to cover all the necessary parts that needed covering.  Adam had to work in the soil and raise crops, domesticated animals and eventually used skins and learned how to weave cloth from wool, linen and cotton. All of the above takes a great deal of work to develop while some seize the means of trade and commerce to generate other ways to pay for food, shelter and the society of others who were in like condition.

What this story does not include is the fact that work required building nests and there was a division of labor almost immediately with man becoming the builder, hunter and farmer while the woman learned how to weave, make pots and stayed home to raise children and by default became chief cook and bottle washer.  Some men made better hunters and farmers while others specialized in trade and money was invented.  Those who knew how to put one and two together to make three found it easy to get others who did not know this trick, to work for them.  The division of labor brought about a difference between those who worked with their hands and those who worked with their minds.  Today we find there is not only the work described above but a complexity of buying and selling with new occupations of how to buy and sell. Some aggressive types made a success of inventions created by inventive types and hired workers who plot how to make the invention more attractive through the arts. Thus art was made the tool to increase spending by making reproduction of notices attractive to come and spend for things they merely wanted but did not need. 

Then there were the geniuses who discovered how to write and keep records.  They specialized in this kind of work and were known as white collar workers while those who worked with their hands and could manage machines had blue collars.  People in suits sat in offices high above the others with windows on the world and plotted how to own more wealth than workers on lower floors. These were co-habiting with workers who specialized in government so that those who had wealth kept it and those who were poor stayed that way.

When this essay was started it was supposed to be about the huge difference between minimum wage and the debate about what that minimum would be.  I noticed that there was no cap on maximum earnings or possessions and this frightens me. The divisions between have and have nots grow while us comfortable ones think we need what we want. The division is greater than you think.