This sounds kind of like one of those games where the Nash equilibrium leaves everyone with fewer points than they'd get if they all cooperated in the right way

This sounds kind of like one of those games where the Nash equilibrium leaves everyone with fewer points than they'd get if they all cooperated in the right way. There may be something to that. I have to say, though, paying my employees more so that my competitors have to pay their employees more so that their employees will buy more stuff from me sounds like a pretty dubious business strategy. And one that certainly won't work at all if there's enough of a labor surplus, because my competitors can keep their wages low and still find employees even if I'm paying an order of magnitude more.