Does the restitution payment for killing a slave in Exod. 21:32 show that slaves had less protection than free persons under Biblical Law?

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Quick answer: no. This law simply fixes a non-negotiable compensation (30 shekels) to the owner of the slave who was killed, as recompense for the economic loss. The issue of culpable negligence is separate from the question of economic loss, and Biblical law treats the slave equivalent to a free person.

First, let's look at the verse in context:

28 “If a bull gores a man or a woman to death, the bull shall surely be stoned, and its meat shall not be eaten; but the owner of the bull shall not be held responsible. 29 But if the bull had a habit of goring in the past, and this has been testified to its owner, and he has not kept it in, but it has killed a man or a woman, the bull shall be stoned, and its owner shall also be put to death. 30 If a ransom is imposed on him, then he shall give for the redemption of his life whatever is imposed. 31 Whether it has gored a son or has gored a daughter, according to this judgment it shall be done to him. 32 If the bull gores a male servant or a female servant, thirty shekels of silver shall be given to their master, and the ox shall be stoned. Exodus 21:28-32WEB

Verses 29-30 cover the case of negligent manslaughter, making the owner of the bull responsible to the next of kin of the person killed, whether slave or free. Verse 32 does not represent an exception to the provision for negligent manslaughter. Rather, verse 32 covers the case of an additional harm (economic) incurred by the fact that the person killed was a servant of another man. The master of the servant is compensated by a fixed amount: 30 shekels of silver.

Biblical law versus ANE law price-fixing

One of the major differences between Biblical law and other legal systems is the scarcity of this kind of price-fixing in the Biblical law code. Other ancient Near East law codes have long lists of fixed compensation, based upon the type of crime and the class of the person harmed. Here is an example from the Code of Hammurabi:

(198) If [a man] has destroyed the sight of a working man or broken a bone of a working man, he shall pay one mana of silver. ... (201) If he has knocked out the tooth of a working man, he shall pay a third of a mana of silver. ... (203) If one man has struck the cheek of another such man of similar status, he shall pay one mana of silver. (204) If a working man has struck the cheek of another working man, he shall pay ten shekels of silver.

You will not find any recompense lists like the above in Biblical law. Exodus 21:32 is the only verse like this. Under Biblical law, talion ("eye for an eye") recompense for injury would normally be completed through a negotiation (referenced in verse 30). The Jewish historian Josephus shows us how talion was understood:

35. He that maimeth any one, let him undergo the like himself, and be deprived of the same member of which he hath deprived the other, unless he that is maimed will accept of money instead of it (30) for the law makes the sufferer the judge of the value of what he hath suffered, and permits him to estimate it, unless he will be more severe.

The above, usual process, would be followed with the relatives of the servant in the case of a life for life redemption. With the servant's owner, however, thirty shekels was fixed as a fair compensation for the loss of a servant's labor. Gordon Wenham writes: "The average wage of a worker in biblical times was about one shekel per month." For comparison, the Biblical law valuation of a male Israelite citizen, age 20 through 60, for the purpose of discharging a vow was 50 shekels (Lev. 27:3ff.)