1. I don't think you can be so simplistic in branding her decision as "politics", I'd say it was more "prudence". Quite possibly he was just one of a number of underpaid workers that truly deserved a raise. Giving him an obscene raise would have had a high likelihood of severely negatively impacting the morale of the other workers.

2. "Keeping you poor". That really depends on how you measure poverty - the author clearly feels like the lessons learned from his time at the company were far more valuable than an extra $3,000 a year would be, and given his writing, I'd be inclined to agree with him.

Bottom line... Always work for experience over money.