Maybe if they paid competitively they would be able to attract new grads. Many of my Berkeley and Stanford EE acquaintances are joining Apple, Facebook, and Go

Maybe if they paid competitively they would be able to attract new grads. Many of my Berkeley and Stanford EE acquaintances are joining Apple, Facebook, and Google as hardware engineers and getting 6 figure initial RSU grants and $140k starting salaries (this is at the PhD level). Even Intel, which has among the best pay in the traditional semi industry, pays about 20-30 percent less total comp, and so they are only attracting either the people still intensely interested in their specialty (and willing to forego pay) or those who couldn't pass an interview at the aforementioned other companies