Quite the contrary I think it says everything we need to know about the business owner. It really just seems like they’re concerned they won’t be able to get such a nice deal of an employee, if Jean were to leave.

They would have to hire two whole employees to do her job, and pay them market wages! Jean works for less because she likes what we tell her to do, and she doesn’t need the money. Instead of maybe paying a little more to ensure the business would continue running in the case that Jean leaves or even just falls sick for an extended period, they would rather look for ways to lock her in (it doesn’t really seem like pay raises are on the table though). This just reads like textbook exploitation to me.