When Tech Became “Customer Service”

How Capitalism Stole Our Skills and Slashed Our Wages

In the mid-1990s, Level 1 tech support jobs routinely paid $25 to $28 an hour, and that was without requiring a CompTIA A+ certification or a college degree. Entry-level workers handled driver conflicts, hardware replacements, OS installs, and phone-based technical triage. This wasn’t fluff work—this was skilled labor. But capitalism, never content with leaving well enough alone, saw an opportunity not to improve the field—but to gut it.

By the early 2000s, with help from Microsoft’s certification systems and a wave of standardized helpdesk software, employers rebranded tech support roles as “Customer Service.” The new title smothered the technical identity of the work and provided cover for slashing wages—dropping entry-level pay to $15 to $17 an hour (Wills, 2005). Same work. Less respect. More micromanagement. And all the “soft skills” training you never asked for.

This wage decapitation wasn’t some accident. It was deliberate cost engineering, executed in tandem with HR departments and corporate strategists (Huws, 2003). Upper management padded their bonuses by siphoning pay from skilled workers, while shareholders were too far removed to notice or care. Union leadership in traditional service sectors looked on with skepticism—or worse, territorial fear—unwilling to embrace or organize tech workers whose “brain work” didn’t fit their familiar molds (Milkman & Voss, 2004).

Then came 2020. The pandemic proved what workers already knew: the job could be done from home. Employers rebranded it again—this time as “Home-Based Agent” work—and spun it like they were doing tech workers a favor. They weren’t. They were outsourcing office costs and still keeping the wages low.

It’s time to reclaim the value of technical labor and organize across the digital divide. The work is the same, the value is real, and the pay needs to match the skill. Way. Pay. Time. Together.

References:

• Huws, U. (2003). The making of a cybertariat: Virtual work in a real world. NYU Press.
• Milkman, R., & Voss, K. (Eds.). (2004). Rebuilding labor: Organizing and organizers in the new union movement. Cornell University Press.
• Wills, J. (2005). The geography of union organization in low-paid service industries in the UK. Antipode, 37(1), 139–160. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.0066-4812.2005.00478.x
• Photo by Tima Miroshnichenko on Pexels.com

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“Way. Pay. Time. Together.” — Not a typo. This simple four-word slogan breaks down what workers need most: control over how we work, fair pay for our effort, time to rest, and the power of standing together. Each word hits hard, calling for real change and unity.

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