A bit of a problem tho for most orgs. If you can only pay more money by promoting people, the job market is suddenly so hot people will leave if you don’t get

A bit of a problem tho for most orgs. If you can only pay more money by promoting people, the job market is suddenly so hot people will leave if you don’t get them more money, but it is a bit silly to just promote every one, and there is a useful distinction to be had between people whose work is mostly heads down coding vs people whose work is also mentoring and communicating technical views to larger numbers of people. The words around promotions usually seem to be about expanding influence and affecting larger numbers of coworkers. That is useful, and fun if you like it, but the purely awesome coders might also need big raises when job market spikes.