>I don’t see my employer as an owner or steward of me.

They don’t need to be. You can both recognize a freedom to do something and yet consider it wrong.

The fact that you and your employer both are approaching a negotiation freely does not make the relationship balanced.

If you leave a company of 10k people, the CEO will not be waking up the next morning in anxiety wondering how to feed their children. If said CEO fires 5k people, many of the fired workers will. A business owner who is not aware and respectful of this fact is not acting morally.