Freedom to Starve

Buying and selling in a free market is lawful, unless there is coercion involved. However, the employer-employee relationship is not a pure market relationship. Once a person is dependent on employment, they have limited their freedom, so some market transactions become coercive for them.

When you employ someone, you are taking time from them, so you have a moral responsibility to ensure they have sufficient income to live from day to day. It is not sufficient to pay a market price.

A starving person is not free. When a person is in extreme poverty, they are vulnerable. Some market transactions become coercive, because they have to sell their labour to survive. They poor person does not have the option of rejecting a poor offer for their labour, because freedom to choose starvation instead, is not true freedom.