Let me ask a similar question: What would you say if you went to your local drug store to buy a soda, and instead of having a fixed price, they asked you, “what’s it worth to you?”
These are, in fact, the same question, it’s just in one case you put yourself in the shoes of the noble worker struggling against the faceless corporation, and in the other you put yourself in the shoes of the noble consumer, struggling against the faceless corporation. But businesses do have faces, they are owned by humans who buy and sell to their advantage, just like you do. In my example, it’s bad for you to pay the absolute most you would pay for a consumer good. In your example, it’s bad for the employer to pay the absolute most that it would pay for your labor.
In your example, the employer might turn around and ask, “What’s the minimum you would accept for your time and labor?” Would that question be any less fair than what you’re asking?
With perfect transparency, you and the employer would both know the range of acceptable prices either of you would accept, and you could find a price that is in both ranges and that splits the difference in some fair way. Unfortunately, we don’t have perfect transparency. When a prospective employer asks, “What are you making at your current job?”, you fudge the numbers upward by 10-15%. And when they tell you the most they can offer is $X, they’re fudging the numbers downward by 10-15%. You each have the ability to research the question and find out what your labor is worth to the company and to you, and if your a rational market agent you will. But you’ll each still lie a bit in the negotiation.
This is exactly right. Why would an employee do more than the bare minimum if that’s all that’s required? There’s a business case to be made for sharing revenues, and lots of companies do that by paying employees in equity. But it’s also worth noting that a lot employees who have the option to get paid in equity turn it down. A lot of people are very risk averse, and you probably overestimate how many people would choose to take on business risk in exchange for greater upside. I think they’re wrong, of course, but that’s neither here nor there.
As long as we’re writing fantasy, let’s make the employer not-a-moron too:
enlightened worker: how much are you paying me per hour?
me: $10
enlightened worker: where do you get the money to pay me?
me: i sell the products you make.
enlightened worker: how many products will i make in 8 hours?
me: $100 worth.
enlightened worker: so then really i’m paying you $20 every 8 hours to do… what, exactly?
me, not-a-moron: i own the factory and run the business. No. Without me your labor isn’t even worth $10 an hour. You can’t sell your labor separately from the labor of everyone else I employ, because the search cost of finding you is not worth it to consumers, and in any case it costs too much for you and every worker I hire to separately coordinate with suppliers for the materials you need, and with the other workers I employ to do different parts of the work.
By working for me, you are earning more than you can earn on your own, and we’re both benefiting from economies of scale. I earn more because I’m taking on more risk, working longer hours, and my time and effort is worth more to others. I’m sorry your labor isn’t worth more than $10 per hour, but the market aggregates information about what things are worth, and to the extent the market isn’t distorted by feel-good policies like a minimum wage, or regulatory capture like corporate subsidies, prison labor, tariffs, etc., the market clearing price for what you bring to the table is an accurate reflection of the value you provide.
It’s true that I could pay you more and take less for myself, but I’m not running a charity here. I don’t give a fuck about you beyond the fact that this economic transaction helps me, just as you don’t give a fuck about me beyond getting a steady paycheck. I have very good rational, selfish reasons to pay you what your time and effort is worth, and, if you turn out to be a good worker, to keep you happy by treating you well, promoting you and giving you raises, and investing in you as an employee so you can create even more value for me. I think what I’m offering to pay you is reasonable given your qualifications; my goal is for it to be more than you could earn elsewhere for your work (at least when prestige, future earnings, etc. are factored in), but not so much that I have to accept less than the rate at which I value my time or raise prices beyond what my competitors are charging or consumers are willing to pay.
But given all that, I have every reason to make you an offer that is selfishly good for you if it is also selfishly good for me – why would you accept if it wasn’t selfishly good for you? So I think you have good rational and selfish reasons to accept my offer. But if you disagree, make a counter offer and I’ll tell you if your labor is worth that price, or if I’d rather find someone else who can provide me the same value for less.