Maybe you have a very good and ethical employer, but my anecdotal evidence tells me it's not the rule, it's the exception. Why is it okay for an owner to try t

Maybe you have a very good and ethical employer, but my anecdotal evidence tells me it's not the rule, it's the exception. Why is it okay for an owner to try to squeeze every penny he can out of his employees but not okay for the employees to do it? The real problem is that the company normally holds the leverage, so the employee has no recourse, no matter how "ethically" wrong the situation may be. Not to mention a company without its employees is nothing. So assuming everyone is working on good faith (neither side is cheating the other) your conscience should be more than clear when asking for more as in the example of rent. The risk is almost always on the side of the employee. For the company you're normally just a number. The balance does shift depending on the company size, but I believe this logic still holds true.