Introduction

Andrew Bustamante: People are more likely to take action when they are rewarded rather than when they feel threatened. In an effort to retain employees, employers from the US government to major tech industries and everywhere in between stopped using positive incentives for two important reasons. This massive change increased the cost to both higher and retained talent and drove a drop in national salary levels. The result was that companies had to pay more to hire people, and as a result, paid the people they hired less once they were actually brought on board.