There's no reason why they would pay $80k in salary if they're not getting enough expected value. Until a new programmer is making minimum wage, there's always

There's no reason why they would pay $80k in salary if they're not getting enough expected value. Until a new programmer is making minimum wage, there's always a point at which companies can employ them for less, and hope their value (plus expected value from the ones who stay on at a higher wage) will be more than the costs of training. Also, training is often domain specific. Employees are generally worth more to their employer than a competitor (though there are exceptions).