This seems like a simple semantic disagreement (and a kind of baffling one, frankly). Particularly cartoonish CEOs might think the word "fair" is code for "ever

This seems like a simple semantic disagreement (and a kind of baffling one, frankly). Particularly cartoonish CEOs might think the word "fair" is code for "everybody in the world gets exactly the same of everything", but the vast majority of people use the word colloquially to include some degree of intuition and rationality and holism (like most words in normal conversation). E.g. almost nobody believes that all human beings should be paid the same salary no matter what they do, yet most people believe that everybody should get "what's fair", for whatever they subjectively believe is fair.