All numbers I've seen show that people who take counter offers from their current employers generally leave anyway. There are exceptions: when salary is the ON

All numbers I've seen show that people who take counter offers from their current employers generally leave anyway. There are exceptions: when salary is the ONLY problem, and usually that topic will have come up. So if the employee came to talk salary, was denied, then got some offers, came back with them, and asked again, then sure. But any company worth its salt will have done something before the other offers were ever in play. If someone gets offers right off the bat and never talk salary first, then they'll be gone in 6 months unless you give them way above market rate.