[derf_]

> Other companies must keep up in order to keep the talent, so the price returns to the actual value to the company.

Uh, no, that is not how supply and demand works. See <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_surplus>.

The gap between what people are willing to pay vs. what people are willing to sell for is often substantial. People spend a lot of time fighting over the distribution of the value in that gap between consumers and producers (see, e.g., price discrimination).