They're not detached, they're playing a different game. The game of the greedy little piggies.

If I give you a raise, well, it just might get out that we give raises around here! Suddenly, I got all these, lazy, do nothing greedy little piggies asking for more money! That 5k becomes 20k, then 50k, etc.! My hard earned slop is drying up quick!

But if I hire someone new, I send the exact opposite message. We don't do raises here, and if you don't like it, we have no trouble replacing you, greedy little piggie!

I think it's short sightedness. If you look at the costs over a decade it would be a no brainer to invest in retention, but if you're only looking at the change in this quarter's budget then it's not as clear.

The is the world the MBAs have created, saving money in the short term seems to be the only thing that matters to many companies. Also, for every one person who leaves to get more money, there may be several who stay at the lower wage

I always assume they believe you are lying.

They are willing to risk the "ok cya here's my 2 weeks" to never suffer the "lol I made that shit up thanks for the big raise"

If they can't really spring for higher salaries, but you're too lazy to change jobs just yet, get them to pay for credentials and training that make you a more desirable hire. Make them load the gun you'll shoot them with.

Hiring budgets are often very different from operational budgets. The job you're moving to for a 30% raise has the same policies as your current job; you're just seeing the other side of it.

I had something similar happen. I lined up a second job that was offering almost double the pay. And my current company was just at a loss they couldn't even offer me online work it was just like a goodbye. Though now I've kind of hit a paid cap for my particular field so I doubt that golden moment will happen again

In my experience, a lot of management positions are filled by people that are meeting a need of feeling a sense of power and control over others. They don't care about the company anymore than they have to to meet this need.

Also, it's possible that they're worried that if they give you a raise, you'll tell others and they will demand one as well. They rather hire a new person without social ties to other workers that wont share what their salary is.

That seems pretty credulous based on your anecdote. Also, you'd surpass 30% in 9 years of 3% raises.

This is why the idea of maintenance is something that should be better appreciated. If that person's pay kept up in the first place, an employee can expect to not need to find another job and the problem never appears in the first place.

That is only true when employees are not skilled and do not gain inside knowledge.

Plus the lack of productivity for onboarding and training the new hire...