You're completely right. I'm glad to see that you're taking the side of the employee in instances like this. In this particular case, it wasn't me who became critically demoralised. It was another good employee who'd been there for years, who discovered he was being paid much less than everyone else. He resigned within a short time period of the group discussion.
You're totally right about individual bargaining power. As someone who's worked as a software-engineer contracting in fintech you'll find yourself at the spearhead of capitalism ( as envisioned by someone like Milton Friedman ), for better or worse.
There's nothing wrong with capitalism or companies trying to extract the best deal they can get, but I can't stand people feeling devalued. It took me longer than it should have to realize my economic and personal value. If I can help just one other person to realize that they are valuable and more than just their work then that's a success in my book. It took my getting diagnosed with a terminal disease to get me to realize what I wanted my legacy to be and I'll spend every day I've got left trying to make this world a little bit less sucky every day.
