Increasing employee pay would also boost morale, but it would be detrimental to retention - move money in their pocket means people have more options to quit ou

Increasing employee pay would also boost morale, but it would be detrimental to retention - move money in their pocket means people have more options to quit outright or find a different job. The same applies to good healthcare - employers WANT their employees to be utterly dependant on them and just barely scraping by so they're stuck. Crappy coverage is a feature, not a bug.