Sometimes you wind up working for an oblivious or sociopathic boss - but then you need to go apply for another job elsewhere. It's like if the closest restaurant to your house is no good: You ought to take the effort to get out of there, and that is your responsibility.
But generally speaking, even halfway decent managers and owners go out of their way to compensate their best people. Now, low-middle managers are not always halfway decent, but then, they're probably not getting directly compensated on production either. Once you get to "head of division", "head of region", and any ownership role or incentive based on real production from a manager's unit, you're going to get managers that want to pay their people well. It makes a bigger pie, so to speak.
