If an employee is living paycheck to paycheck on an above market salary it is a set up to lose everything. This is definitely an intentional management technique.
It's worse than that. About half of people spend more than they make at least a few months each year. While they may still be net positive for the year, there are times they are likely paycheck to paycheck in there. And about half have no plan for building savings either, so they're unlikely to change the situation.
Further, I forgot about another aspect.. many tax deductions start phasing out at $50k and are completely gone by $80k (iirc), so at $70k they're not only in a higher tax bracket, they also have less deductions so their overall tax burden will go up.
