This is a variation of what I might call the sycophant or nice guy paradox. The sycophant and the nice guy are desperate to be liked. They believe that if they prioritize pleasing people over the truth and what is morally right, they will be liked in return. Of course, that isn't what happens. No one respects the nice guy, and rightly so, because the nice guy is contemptible. He has essentially been shouting from the rooftops his lack of dignity and worth, his willingness to violate all true principles, and his readiness to comprise morally, for the sake of being liked (how lowly a person like that must be). The only people who are respected are the people who have staked themselves to the true and the good, not the Willy Lomans of the world. This, too, is similar to the hedonist: when pleasure becomes the purpose of one's actions and the things sought, they cease to be pleasurable.
When an employer sees that they can squeeze more work out of an employee for less money, then why bother paying them more? Do good work within the bounds of the contract. In general, if the employer wants more, he has got to pay more.