That is indeed a downside, but I imagine there's a less obvious benefit to Buffer. If Buffer has an employee that is working there despite the ability to get a

That is indeed a downside, but I imagine there's a less obvious benefit to Buffer. If Buffer has an employee that is working there despite the ability to get a higher offer somewhere else, I imagine that that employee is pretty engaged. Multiply that by the whole company, and I bet you have a pretty great team. In other words, the there is likely a positive self-selection effect going on. It's not perfect, but no other system is either. Right now I am seeing a lot of people at my job thinking a lot about comp, which makes me think about comp, etc. It's contagious.