In medieval times that’s certainly true. Egyptian laborers were paid. Generally in food and housing, as coinage wouldn’t be introduced for quite some time. Especially skilled laborers were sometimes given land. Egypt had a very routinized farming season and most laborers were farmers with nothing to farm in the off season.

Skilled stone masons could kinda go wherever so locking them in to work with taxes was a great way to get them to leave.

Fun fact, they had a daily meal of a particularly thick beer that had chunks of bread in it. And one time they went on strike when they ran out of wigs.