[roncesvalles]

Devs leave in 18 months because their market value increases faster than their pay at their current company.

You can give devs a vested interest in their work by making sure compensation tracks/exceeds what they can get outside, because it would give them a vested interest in remaining employed with the company.

[ChrisMarshallNY]

This is true, but it is also only one axis. Once we have been at it for a while, respect, work-life balance, and job satisfaction are also very important variables.

I will bet that the top companies are able to provide all of these, and keep people, but I suspect that many companies have terrible managers that can’t keep a decent work environment going, so compensation is the only variable that matters.

The company I worked for, didn’t pay especially well, and I worked very hard to treat my employees well. It seemed to work. It wasn’t a case of greedy managers, making money off the backs of peons. None of us made that much, but the work was deeply satisfying. We worked with the top engineers and scientists in the world (in our field). Our business cards opened a lot of doors.