"Simple economics" is an oxymoron. Theory of value goes far beyond the market price as the final judgement of value.
On even a higher level, economics just describes possible outcomes of a game under a set of rules. It does not prevent us from using our own judgement of fairness on the rules themselves.
If company A is willing to pay you $100k/year, and you won't work for less than $120k/year, what's your market value?
Maybe you wait a few weeks and get an offer from company B for $140k, and you negotiate it up to $160k. The manager was willing to pay $180. Meanwhile, company C wants you for $200k, but you never sent them your résumé.
What's your market value?
(You have poor liquidity, so it's hard to figure out what your actual market value is. Market value is the estimated salary you'd actually get after a negotiation, which is usually going to be above your minimum salary and below the maximum offer. Your actual salary is only one more piece of data you can use to figure out what your actual market value is.)
On even a higher level, economics just describes possible outcomes of a game under a set of rules. It does not prevent us from using our own judgement of fairness on the rules themselves.