Yeah, I don't have data to back this, but my gut tells me that big software companies' consumer surplus on payroll is significantly higher than it is in other k

Yeah, I don't have data to back this, but my gut tells me that big software companies' consumer surplus on payroll is significantly higher than it is in other knowledge industries, i.e. Microsoft/Google/etc. aren't paying you nearly as much as they'd be willing to. I think that's part of the reason talent acquisitions are becoming increasingly common -- you can't just pay new hires 50-200% more than what everyone around them is making, because that would infuriate existing employees. But if you pay them that same figure via a talent acquisition, none of your current employees will care much because they can mentally file it under "special cases".