For another example, here's the president of the Seattle Mariners bragging to a rotary club meeting about how their team's payroll was as low as it gets, how they get more than they deserve out of their TV deal, how they brazenly manipulate young players' in their minor-league teams to avoid starting the clock on their service contracts (basically the baseball equivalent of "my startup is offering stock options to justify low salaries, but we're going to dilute/fundraise at higher liquidation preference/prevent them from reaching the exercise price/terminate the employees before they vest so they don't cost us anything!"). He says that a particular veteran player and team leader is expensive, so they're going to fire him at the end of the season, another player from Japan doesn't speak English well and he wants to get rid of his interpreter. He brags that there's not enough parking, so he can get away with charging $30, $40, $50 to park in his tiny little parking garage, and he makes his employees park on the other side of town in a bad neighborhood.
It's one thing to observe that people may rationalize the decisions that benefit themselves personally. Sure, it would be unexpected for the CEO to decide "We don't pay our employees enough", but you'd like to have a veneer of justification for the cut. You can imagine their subconscious pushing them towards the conclusion that they're incentivized to reach. It's another to hear them literally say the quiet part out loud.