Established tech companies can and do pay their engineers to stay using stock grants. The upside to the company is they can modify those grants based on market

Established tech companies can and do pay their engineers to stay using stock grants. The upside to the company is they can modify those grants based on market forces and performance, the compensation is not (entirely) a fixed bottom line cost. The upside to the employee is they can earn some multiplier of their base salary for some number of years. If you are a smaller company or start-up where you cannot give tradable equity then you have to offer something else. But if Amazon are hiring in your city then best to not try to compete.