I think you actually nailed the point perfectly. Part of the social contract is that an employer will provide enough money to meet the basic needs of the employees. When the employer fails to do that, employees can feel like “wage slaves”, or prisoners, who are being mistreated.

“We’ve had to limit our food anyway,” said Valdivia. “So basically you are kind of starving us, Kaiser.”

I recently produced a radio drama on what life was life before we had child labor laws, and how they came about. If you’re interested, it’s called “Florence Kelley, The Children’s Champion.”