It is not just the money. However you are simply not going to make it in a mountain town on $15.00 / hours, for a seasonal job, with zero benefits. For instructors, you have a few check-ins per day, and you may, or may not get paid for that hour of standing around, waiting to see if you get a client.
More than money, it is what is expected of patrollers and instructors - the degree of training, who pay for training, scheduling (Beaver Creek, for example, upped their minimum number of hours for ski instructors. If you don't meet the minimum, through no fault of your own, through a lack of the area generating business, you have to write a check at the end of the season for your pass), fringe benefits, working for a ski area burnout with close to zero management skills (there are few, rare, exceptions), etc.
Those patrollers are fighting over a well deserved $0.70, for doing work that requires a high degree of skill, and in many cases paying for their training. Meanwhile, a dishwasher is making far more per hour for zero investment in a skill set.
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