"When someone claims that capitalism requires coercion in order to pay high salaries, the burden is on them to explain why so many high salaries exist, sans coercion, under capitalism."

I was trying to make an argument that in capitalist countries without worker protection laws like minimum wage, holidays, worker safety regulations, retirement etc (think China, industrialization-aera Europe), workers tend to be exploited by their employers, rather than receiving part of the wealth they help generate.