There is a thread (screengrab)in another subreddit with interesting claims about the Pyramids built by skilled craftsmen, paid in salary/beer and being well fed.
Are there definitive sources whether the manual labor was performed by enslaved or employed people?
There are a couple of OK answers in the AskHistorians archive, but by comparison with 2022 answers they're a bit short on detail and evidence. So it'd be awesome if someone can write a thorough response here. Here are the old ones:
What evidence is there of Ancient Egyptian slavery? mainly their systematic slavery of the Hebrews and who built the pyramids, answered by /u/leocadia, and some supplementary material on slavery (but not the pyramids) by /u/Flubb, all the way back in 2012
Were Egypt's pyramids primarily built by slaves or paid workers?, answered by /u/ZeusAmmon time travelling from 2018
Just a note of caution on how the question is formulated: 'paid' doesn't mean money, because money wasn't invented until the 500s BCE, in Lydia (modern Turkey). Talking about 'payment' in the Bronze Age necessarily means compensation in a more general sense.