How do we retain talent in KW?

[tomh009]

That gives you aggregate salary data, yes. We do use Communitech info if we're hiring for a type of position where we have no experience. But if we're hiring for positions similar to what we have done before, we don't even check the Communitech data -- we make our own decisions about how much we want to pay and what level of people we want to hire. And I do expect most other companies do the same.

All I'm disagreeing with is your assertion that there is no market. Of course there is. Prices are not published, there's no central source where you can go and acquire employees like I can acquire bananas, but there is a supply of talent and demand for it. If I say "I want to hire a developer with five years of node js experience" and you have a feel for what that person's salary should be, we're talking about a market.

Re-reading my original post, I see that I stated my assertion rather poorly.

The original quote I was responding to was "One imagines it could change quickly if the local market began offering competitive wages."

And my point was that "the market" doesn't offer wages, individual employers do, and each one of them decides how competitive they want to be. So, yes, there is a market, as you say. But the decisions are made by individual companies. Of course, if many companies feel they can hire at low salaries, that will also bring down the market averages.