Do you have data to support your claim on the EMTs and surgical residents? That sounds surprising to me on the EMT front, though surgical residents presumably are paid quite low because their earnings will exponentially grow in the coming years.
Yikes, just looked on Glassdoor, $30k yearly for EMTs in the Providence, RI area. These are professionally certified people with numerous skills, first-contact for emergent health issues, and they get paid barely more than very low-skilled service workers, many of whom are now receiving $15/h (that's great for them, but damn EMTs deserve more).
