In practice, what you describe is the exception to the rule within a state capitalist framework. Dependency on employers prevents many from ever coming far enough out of debt to do what they want.
I have a hard time with equating pay to exoneration or choice because reliance on any paycheck does not let you all the way out of the state or capitalist's control. Pay is giving a man a fish and assuming he has means to stockpile fish until he can learn to fish.
More nonsense. Pay is giving the cabin boy a fish out of the day's catch, he learns to fish by observation and participation in the trade of the fisherman. His increases in the skill of the trade increase his value to the captain of the boat, and also his pay. Eventually his wages exceed his need, and he can save up to buy his own boat from the boatmaker; or simply convince the boatmaker of his creditworthiness based upon his reputation as an experienced fisherman and crewman, in which case the boatmaker secures an ongoing source for fish for his own family's table. Every step without coercion. Employing an unskilled laborer is
both giving him a fish for a day's work, and teaching him to fish.