> realize they've been working for 20 years and getting nowhere

How are you defining "getting nowhere"? At least in the US, the average software developer eventually becomes a millionaire working a pretty cushy job with good benefits. Most people in unions wish they could be exploited like software engineers.

Any bar set so high in defining worker exploitation that a software engineer can't clear the hurdle is not a constructive definition. If everyone is "exploited" then no one is.