I'm not sure paying higher salaries actually brings in better people in all cases, though. University administration has seen a big influx of people who are in

I'm not sure paying higher salaries actually brings in better people in all cases, though. University administration has seen a big influx of people who are in it for the money over the past 20 years, the kinds of people who 50 years ago would've stayed in industry. Now you can land a $300k+ academic job, so it's seen as a potential stop on the VP/consulting/management/etc. circuit to take some kind of top role at a university for a few years— rather than being seen as a senior academic position, with a higher but still modest salary. And that has further knock-on effects in that the top ranks of academia tend to have very corporate rather than research/education-oriented cultural backgrounds, and self-servingly think of administration as the most important part of the university.