I think slave is (way) too strong, but I earn more than that, and until I'd paid off my house I considered myself a "wage-slave", in as much as I couldn't afford to stop working. Another term I used for myself was "techno-whore", since I sell my technical skills for money. I could choose to end that by moving to a LCOL area instead of the VHCOL area that supplies those wages, but I don't because there are advantages to being where I am.

Still, costs are in line with those wages, so my mortgage was costing me ~$5k/month, my electricity was peaking at $1k/month, my water was $500/month, my property taxes were $1500/month, etc. etc. etc. A high salary doesn't necessarily mean unbound wealth, it just makes living in that VHCOL area comfortable.

Sadly, I still can't afford to stop working, but that's more down to the completely terrible form of "healthcare" that the US employs, and not my actual job.

Engineers making 300k is a US-specific phenomenon and was only as a result of the very competitive SWE job market (itself as a result of "free" VC money which has now ran out).

There's no guarantee it won't become like the UK or most of Europe where software engineering salaries are miserable.

I wouldn’t use the word slave, but a lot of these companies have moonlighting agreements and verbiage like “will dedicate your full business attention” to ensure you aren’t building anything that isn’t for them.

Yes, everyone who needs to work for a living is a wage slave.