Some great comments here. Tangentially, I occasionally day dream of running or working for a company that flips typical corporate "intention" on its head -- Specifically by placing employees at the highest place of priority and let profits, progress, customers, share price etc. be what they'll be. I think that would be a very interesting experiment.

As far as how that relates to pay, part of the experiment would be to pay each employee more than they are "worth" to market. Just to see how it changes things for them and the company.

At the same time, "freeloaders" and folks that just can't cut it would need to be identified and separated from, to protect those that recognize and appreciate that the company is truly looking out for them and are reciprocating with true hard work and value creation.