Employers take on risk. Risk of employing you, investing in the business, market research, risk of market down-periods, etc. Additionally, they're an intermedia

Employers take on risk. Risk of employing you, investing in the business, market research, risk of market down-periods, etc. Additionally, they're an intermediary that makes finding/retaining clients easier and more efficient. So no, I wouldn't call it "stealing", rather an exchange that is not immediately obvious because it's not entirely monetary/transactional in nature.