It depends on how you define risk, or what angle you're looking at it from.
With lower salaries, the company can assume more risk, there's more room for failure. With higher salaries the employee becomes an increasing liability.
Just compare how hiring in France is, where terminating people is significantly more difficult, with an at-will environment like California.
If employees getting a lower salary enables a company to take risks, doesn't that mean the employees are shouldering the risk?