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If any labor were truly unskilled; you could come in day one and perform as well as those who'd been at it for 10 years. I can't think of one thing where that is the case. Does anyone still test if food has been poisoned by eating it first? Little skill, but man if so that person definitely deserves a good wage.
A serious answer: it's more about supply and demand. Unskilled is work that nearly anyone can do. Lots of supply, so wages are lower than jobs where a smaller number of people can do it. I don't think there's any conspiracy there.
You haven't seen some of my coworkers then
Another approach is to divide unpleasant work evenly under everyone who can do it like in the novel The Dispossessed. This will be less efficient since each one needs to acquire the skill and won't reach perfection because they don't stay long enough but to hell with efficiency.
So yes, it is skilled labor and if you call it "unskilled", you have no excuse not to do it from time to time.
There's also the fact manual labor is seem by Anarresti as something to be proud of.
Also, Chevek doesn't directly mention it in the book, but in reality some people simply enjoy hard jobs and would gladily do them if they can make a good living out of them.