With a competent manager there should be no hard feelings when framed as a market adjustment. Competent managers know that employees become higher paid with ti

With a competent manager there should be no hard feelings when framed as a market adjustment. Competent managers know that employees become higher paid with time. It's up to them to decide whether or not to try and stick with an employee to delay hitting their "this is a big enough difference I should jump ship" amount or not. It's no different than a business telling a customer "listen, you're gonna have to pay more because I have other more valuable work I could be doing". The customer can pay more or they can go elsewhere.