Yes, there are whole constellations of frictionless, spherical cows in here.
I think at best you could say that accepting an offer of employment for $X/hr implies that you value your time less than $X/hr, but even this best-case interpretation is only true for the first few hours per week or whatever. Having enough income to avoid being homeless and worried about food is likely very much more valuable than whatever income comes in on top of that. What’s more, employment turns non-employment time into a scarcer resource.
Someone could work for $15/hr, but quite consistently value their remaining time at $100/hr due to a combination of decreasing utility of money and value of an increasingly scarce resource.
Likewise someone could work for $100/hr and it could still be consistent for them to value an hour of their time at $15/hr.
Yes, there are whole constellations of frictionless, spherical cows in here.
I think at best you could say that accepting an offer of employment for $X/hr implies that you value your time less than $X/hr, but even this best-case interpretation is only true for the first few hours per week or whatever. Having enough income to avoid being homeless and worried about food is likely very much more valuable than whatever income comes in on top of that. What’s more, employment turns non-employment time into a scarcer resource.
Someone could work for $15/hr, but quite consistently value their remaining time at $100/hr due to a combination of decreasing utility of money and value of an increasingly scarce resource.
Likewise someone could work for $100/hr and it could still be consistent for them to value an hour of their time at $15/hr.
Real life is messy.