Just like complaining gets those customers more attention over regular non complaining customers, so to is bargaining and leverage influential in the job market

Just like complaining gets those customers more attention over regular non complaining customers, so to is bargaining and leverage influential in the job market game. Everything is a push and a pull, if you aren't pushing you are being pulled, and vice versa. With market values out there, if you aren't putting up other offers or leverage then the weight of the bargaining isn't on your side. It sucks that the game is like this, in a perfect world you'd have people that just wanted to work at one place without needing to play the game and employers that paid you actual market worth, but in reality that market value has to be checked to gain leverage. Other market value checks on skills/employees/entrepreneurs are out there such as success, college, projects in addition to offers, but it needs to be a market value check externally to the organization/workplace to be valuable. Like players in sports free agency, loyalty is gone from both employer and employee, you might have to move to a new team if you want to get paid sometimes and you need a few teams vying for you when it comes time to negotiate.