The introduction of a wage serves primarily to sanitise coercion. When the only alternative to accepting a wage is starvation or homelessness, the concept of a meaningful choice evaporates.
This is a perfect example of the architecture of obedience. By institutionalising exploitation and framing it within the language of contracts and economics, the ruling class successfully rebrands subjugation as voluntary participation. The underlying threat of ruin remains constant, it is just obfuscated by the structural design of the economy.
We are conditioned to recognise overt physical force as tyranny, yet we accept systemic economic violence as the natural order of the world.