1. Most startups either don't have HR departments, or have HR departments with no power at all, so sexual harassment scenario you describe can and does happen with no recourse. (Recent example: CEO harasses employee. Company does nothing, so employee leaves. Two other employees realize this happened, complain, get fired.)

2. Overall, though, yes, it's a much much worse working environment in minimum wage jobs. But the point isn't "my work environment as a programmer is bad", cause overall it isn't. The point is "my work environment is a lot better than minimum wage workers only because my skills are in demand".

So it's not about shared working conditions, it's about a shared inherent conflict with employers. And this is especially visible in companies that have both categories of workers, e.g. Amazon. Amazon isn't treating software engineers well because of some inherent goodness of their heart.

Since we'd all be treated the way minimum wage workers are given the chance, it's important to realize this, take advantage of the bargaining power we currently have, and actually negotiate (individually and collectively).

That's a good point, that the primary difference is the lack of bargaining power due to the way that demand for different types of work is viewed. Custodial work is viewed as being something that is in demand because only some people are willing to do it while engineering work is viewed as being in demand because only some people are capable of doing it. Your advice to use this to be one of the few people in the world who works in fair conditions is good advice.

I personally find that good work is difficult to source and beneficial in the long-term across all industries and skill levels. High employee turn-over of any kind makes it more difficult to hire, wastes money on training and recruiting and, in some notable cases, breeds resentment even among people who have never worked at that company or in that field (again, Amazon). Having employees who are sick due to lack of healthcare, pretending to be sick because it's the only way to get elected time off or, even worse, are coming to work sick because they don't have an option for paid time off is only going to cause more problems.

Yeah, a lot of worker/management conflict is result of some combination of prioritizing power over efficiency (overworked workers don't have time to complain/organize), and plain old bad management. Things like long working hours reduce output, and as you say having sick people come in is also stupid.

So smart companies won't e.g. overwork their employees. But some of the conflicts are inherent in the relationship, e.g. how much money goes to workers.