The reality is a lot more complicated than that. Certain entry-level art roles are pretty fungible, for instance, and most of them are already contract position

The reality is a lot more complicated than that. Certain entry-level art roles are pretty fungible, for instance, and most of them are already contract positions or outsourced to other studios (in places like Eastern Europe and Southeast Asia). However, beyond a certain level of experience and in some cases, entire disciplines, there is a dearth of quality candidates. Experienced developers, who have a good reputation, do have leverage but usually not to the extent to equalize comp with what one would see outside the industry. I've seen studios have critical roles go unfilled for the better part of a year for lack of qualified candidates at the budget set aside for them.