Say an engineer is working on Google’s ad platform. In an alternate universe, he is working at Bing, producing code of identical quality. The economic outcome of this identical unit of labor output is dramatically different.

That difference is attributed to the company, not the laborer. Now whether that is because of “monopolistic forces” or because the company is truly “better managed” is up for debate.

So just because your labor is worth $X to your employer doesn’t mean all of it can be attributed to you. It would be inaccurate to believe that they owe you exactly $X, and anything less would be exploitation.