[rz2k]

In a well functioning labor market, employee should earn more than the minimum they would accept to do the job and employers should pay less than the employee is making the firm.

Who gets what share of that surplus value from the transaction is a negotiation. Arguments about what's fair and other normative statements are definitely an effective way to influence those negotiations.

If an employee does something to earn a company a lot more money, they're not automatically entitled to that additional income, but they have a lot more room to negotiate their compensation. The same goes for assumed changes in an employee's reserve price.

Even from a purely self-serving perspective, it is worth considering that offending employees or colleagues is liable to change morale and output before they leave. Additionally, the rising acceptance of remote work doesn't just mean that there are new considerations about living expenses, it means that companies aren't just competing with local companies for talent. That star employee who has just moved to a cabin in the woods could very well have more options in 2020 than they did in 2019.