[onewhippedpuppy]

Originally Posted by Jim Richards

Matt, employees are "resources." Companies want the best resources for least expenditure. It's cold, but you need to put yourself in management's shoes.

Very true. But what happens when you spend time and money developing a resource, then lose it? You spend time and money finding a new replacement resource, then time and money to develop the new resource. Assuming that the new resource can be developed to a similar skill level as the old resource, eventually you've spent a lot of time and money to return to square one. In the meantime, your overall productivity has dropped while the new resource is being developed, leaving your project behind schedule and over budget.

If you do the math, it's pretty easy to justify paying your employee what they're worth, i.e. what your competitor offered them to leave you.