One I see left out is good benefits. Having good health care, dental, etc. that isn't what you get in a one-person package is a big plus for some employees, es

One I see left out is good benefits. Having good health care, dental, etc. that isn't what you get in a one-person package is a big plus for some employees, especially older ones. It was a big pain point when I was doing contract work. Although that was Toronto, so your mileage may very in the US. I think ultimately though if you can't compete on salary you're looking at attracting a certain subset of engineers. There may be great engineers among them, but few of them will be paying down a large mortgage for instance. A lot of property markets just don't allow people to take significantly lower salaries and you have to accept that and go after the engineers who can.