[ohyes]

That's definitely true, but I think that a part of on the job training is building loyalty. If you like the people you work with and the salary and benefits are pretty decent, you are not likely to want to go looking for another job.

For my last job (at a really big company), the only time that substantially increasing my salary came up was when I was already on my way out the door, and they realized 'oh shit, we really depend on this guy' and tried to counter offer.

I would get glowing reviews but the maximum my salary could possibly ever increase in a year was 5%. Changing companies it could increase by as much as 50-60%. So we can say that it is a 'bad relationship' but mostly it is simple math. Of course you are going to have to pay the highly skilled person a salary that is commensurate to their skills. Additionally, you should work to keep them at the salary the market will bear rather than waiting for them to get a better offer from someone else. It will cut into your profit margin, but it is a lot better than being on the defensive and having to counter offer against a company that the employee has already talked herself into wanting to be at.

[sliverstorm]

The whole thing seems to be a problem created by the volatility and rapid growth/movement of the tech industry. Job loyalty originally started to decline in part because companies didn't last, and began a downward spiral as logical "next steps" were taken, such as cutting on the job training.

As for salaries, I think the gradual increase was historically normal, but the potentials for dramatic growth in skill and effectiveness is new and enabled by the tech sector. We haven't figured out how to cope with it yet. (No, you can't just give everyone 50% raises YOY).