They were older, but hired less than a year before me. We had the same job responsibilities, same title, and similar qualities of work. I would say that the co

They were older, but hired less than a year before me. We had the same job responsibilities, same title, and similar qualities of work. I would say that the company preyed on their age & education to low ball them. I knew what I was worth and asked for it and got it. In my experience, it's less senior management and more payroll defining company policy especially at big tech. Senior managers get those pools to work with. Yes there are bonus/merit pools based on performance throughout the groups, but what I'm referring to is the company proactively matching market rate for employees they actually want to retain. Too many people leave purely for compensation and this is well before the pandemic/reshuffled market. Those retention gaps cause so much churn because those responsibilities are now spread throughout the remaining members. It's a cascading problem of not being able to hire fast enough, even at the biggest companies with the best benefits out there. Merit bonuses hardly even keep up with inflation and are disguised as "you doing a good job, here's a 2-3% raise!". It's a winner-take all game even in the most privileged of positions in the workforce. Companies make even some of the best managers immoral by concealing or feigning ignorance about this information. You have to play ball just to get what you want or else you'll be walked over like a doormat.