I’ve been writing about this topic for months, including publishing how much companies in 2021 did one-off adjustments as discussed on HN [1] (a list of about 50 companies, between 5-30% as one-off increases outside annual raises) and suggesting to those in charge of budgets to do one-off adjustments ASAP to retain their engineers.
Although many CTOs and VPEs read and understood the rationale, the majority could not get meaningful budget increases. The reason? Their non-technical CEO and CFO.
This very hot market is only the case for tech and the rest of the business struggles to understand why tech should be any exception at annual budgeting.
I see it as the typical story of execs assuming tech leaders are crying wolf when there is no wolf. By the time the wolf takes away most the sheep, it’s too late.
The only exceptions I’ve seen are:
1. Companies seeing attrition impossible to ignore. In May 2021 a company in the UK announced no pay raises till Apr 2022 answering an all-hands question. 25% of senior engineers left the next 3 months, and the company did an emergency 15% raise across engineering in November.
2. Companies that collect, and act on market data. This is mostly Big Tech. It’s why Amazon has been decisive in increasing base salaries, and why Meta increased RSU refreshers by ~20-25% this year. They know the market better than any salary benchmarking company does (which companies’ data is outdated).
I still get messages of engineering managers asking how they can make their leadership understand their dire situation. I tell them that unless their company is in the #2 category, the only way is to put them in #1, and suggest these engineering managers lead by example in securing much higher offers, leaving, and after enough people leave, non-technical leadership might eventually act.