Firms have leverage over non organized labor even when they’re much smaller than monopolies. Especially at the lower end of the pay spectrum. Running the economy not at full employment guarantees there’s a replacement waiting for a worker attempting wage negotiations. But at the whole spectrum, unless there’s a significant labor shortage in some skill set, individual workers have much more limited negotiating power than firms. So firms employ labor abuse instead of innovation even when they’re small. Perhaps even at the small business stage.