I realize you're making a moral argument more than an economic argument, but the economic argument is still a consistent one.
You generally can't deduct more than your basis for something you sold. Your basis in an hour of your labor is $0. That's true whether you're paid W-2 or 1099.
The various US government entities (DOT, EPA, HHS) uses a statistical life value of around $10 million (probably higher now due to inflation).
The average American works ~1800 hours a year, and, if counting from 18 to 68, can work 50 years, or 90000 hours in an average working life.
If you think solely economically, then the statistical hourly value is $111/hour ($10,000,000 / 90,000). That's your cost-basis for an average human's work-hour, per the statistic value of a human life. Of course, the $10 million isn't solely an economic number, since human life is technically priceless and has a moral value, which then brings the argument back to morality.
You generally can't deduct more than your basis for something you sold. Your basis in an hour of your labor is $0. That's true whether you're paid W-2 or 1099.