What is kind of bizarre is that big-tech companies recruit largely based on their brand image, not purely on high-pay. They receive so many applications per month that even if they just lowballed incoming college-grads, the ones that choose to take the job rather than go to a competitor would still be perfectly fine. Deal with the rest through normal attrition and in a few years you solve your wage/RSU problem. This is how smaller and less famous companies do it.

Yet why risk having to stir up some kind of illegal price fixing or collusion nonsense as a hedge fund manager? My guess is that the paradox is solved if you consider the saved cost of compensation vs the cost of litigation.

Proof point: Microsoft, Apple, and Amazon doesn't pay nearly as much as Google or Facebook in terms of total comp, yet they have no problem finding employees.