I've worked for 5 companies and 3 of them had this behavior. Would get 5/5 on reviews, saved company hundreds of thousands, delivered a flagship multi million dollar in revenue product. Ask for more then 10k and was told to get an offer elsewhere and they would match. Got another job at 30k+ told them to screw off, if I have to apply and go get a job offer to prove my "worth" then I'm just going to go work for another company. Companies have a bad habit of negotiating for negotiating rather then paying for worth. It's because it's hard to track worth and easier just to always bottom out, that and much of non tech centered world still operates like that across the board.