people who work in arts and humanities should earn less than those who work in the sciences and economics because the benefits of the arts and humanities to the population is less important than that of scientific or economic endeavours .

Arts and humanities is an integral part of our system and no less important than science and economics. Arts and humanities has co-existed with science and economics since ancient times . Certainly the contribution of an economist or an enginner to the world is more than that of a math teacher but it is because of a math teacher who laid down there foundation in a primary school. It is difficult to quantify the benefits in terms of money as each has its own role to play in the smooth functioning of the society.

There is a clear bias in society for people who work in arts and humanities. They are considered to be intellectually incapable of doing any tasks that require use and application of logic. This couldn't be more false. People in this field are just as much capable as engineers or economists. They face the same magnitude of problems. Consider the example of a nurse at a hospital and a theorotical physicist at research centre. The task of the nurse is to take care of patients and disinfect the bed when one patient leaves so that the next patient can occupy it while at the same time the physicist might be taking readings of a test regarding string theory. Both this people make substantially different wages. This is a clear case of demand and supply problem . Many people can fill in a nurse's position but not many can fill a physicist's position, however, the nurse is doing a task that is definitely more beneficial to the society.

Assume that such a recommendation is actually put into effect. This would mean lesser incentives for teacher. They are more likely to quit there jobs and do something else that might give them better incentives . This void left by quality teachers would be filled by mediocre teachers and the entire education system will suffer. The future generation of engineers and economists would be less equipped to tackle the problems.Even though a teacher's contribution to the society is indirect and is not easily quantifiable it certianly cannot be ignored.

In the final analysis it is difficult to determine that science offers a greater benefit to the society than humanities. It is inherently subjective and highly opinionated. In most of the cases a person in arts gets a lower pay than a researcher.