You are so on target here. When an employer figures the cost of an employee they calculate all of this into the total cost of each and every employee. Anyone who, like I have, has bargained employee salaries, knows this. It is not as if this is some add on cost of having employees that your employer didn't account for. Think of it as a pie. Whatever employees cost in salary, taxes and benefits is a piece of that pie. Profits are another piece of the pie.
My SSI is almost at $1,600 a month. I paid into this system for approximately 50 years. I honestly don't believe I am the one breaking the system. My wife's SSD is just under $1,200 a month and she paid into it the better part of 40 years. Gawd, I feel really sorry for those baby boomers! Both my wife and I missed being in this category by a smidgen.
Ya its just an accounting scam that imop the government loves to use so it looks like they're taking less from the employee. And it keeps the employers and employees divided some what.