> but if you include the cost of that higher salary reducing his value would that also reduce the salary you want to pay? Doesn't make sense. It indeed doesn't

> but if you include the cost of that higher salary reducing his value would that also reduce the salary you want to pay? Doesn't make sense. It indeed doesn't. Where did you get that idea? It's not as complicated as you probably think. If the engineer has rendered services which are worth his salary + his actual expenses to achieve that, he has earned exactly his salary, high or low.