AITA Contractor cut pay by 20% after 2 years of hard work building their business, another client (I met through contractor) offered a very generous salary to take me

So I have been doing contract work for one of my friends, working full time for them getting paid per gig for 2 years. I was making really good money @ 50% of each invoice. It was me and their brother in law who were their first ever contract employees outside of the founders. We were still 1099.

The other contractor and I started out slow but with our presence on the team we were able to cover more jobs and help expand the company in the local area. My amount of jobs completed doubled from my first year to my second year.

2 years pass and 5 more employees are added at the same percentage. Then February 2026 they hit us with a 10% paycut . To them it was 50% to 40% but our paychecks reflected a 20% difference. What they said to me is "Hey man, its just business and we need to keep the company going strong" "Our editing costs are getting more expensive".

On top of that, every biweekly meeting started out with "month after month we are hitting new records with how many jobs we are doing".

Back track to November 2025 a client I met through them was trying to poach me and sent me a generous job offer and I denied it because I truly enjoyed where I am. Then January they sent me a 2nd offer because they could not find anyone that fit what they are looking for and I denied it a second time.

Finally my friend dropped the news about the pay cut and with divine timing the other client asked if we could negotiate something and we came to an agreement so I left my friends company for a client that I met through contract work with them.

Reasons I left, I know my value and what is the going rate for what I provide.
20% pay cut
new college kid getting hired at 40% less than what I made 2025 calendar year

random facts to add to this situation
I found out how much they were actually paying for editing vs what they were charging and I was barely getting a fraction of it
one of the owners just bought a new 85k SUV
Obviously I dont know the full details of their overhead but it is a fully digital company no brick and mortar and no consumables

soooo AITA?