i started doing this to my new employer who pays less than half of what my previous employers did and let's just say that i have A LOT of time on my hands now. lol
I don't know if it's broken, just slanted to favor industry as intended. It's amazing what happens when it becomes a job seekers' market though, and why corporations hate it when the labor market is hot in workers' favor since they don't have to play these bullshit power games when there are companies lining up to accept candidates.
I used to manage a pizza place and we paid minimum wage. When I started there I made $6 something/hour. Years later we were taking applications through an online portal and it claimed we offered competitive wages. Minimum wage was 7.25 by then and that's what we paid.
I asked my district supervisor how he could use that language. He told me it is competitive, everywhere else also pays minimum wage.
I always saw it as a psychological test ..... they're trying to find gullible, pliable individuals who can passably do the work and agree to be paid as little as possible and made to work as much and as often as they can.
A bonus for them would be actually finding people they could literally treat like slaves and not pay them anything.