I believe that an employer should make a substantial margin on an employee&#x27;s labor. That provides a stable situation, covers for the employer&#x27;s risk (if an employee&#x27;s project&#x2F;work fails to create value, they still get paid), and covers the overhead.<p>If you want full value (which might be zero or negative at times) for your labor, you should start your own thing and keep 100% of the value you create.<p>If my employer wasn&#x27;t making at least 3x (and ideally more like 5x) the total cost they were spending on me, I&#x27;d start worrying about the stability and longevity of that relationship. (So far, very happily employed there almost 13 years and no end in sight.)