Before I learned the system I was working for about 5 years or so. I got involved with training some new grad engineers. Which is fine. Then I find out the new college grads were making more than me. It was an eye opener. I was getting 3-4% merit raises and they(HR) were doing the same to the starting salaries. I was going backwards.
I once had an engineering department head tell me he could not match an offer I received from another company; he could not give me a raise that large due to company rules.
But he was allowed to hire me off the street, with the same experience I had at that rate.
He was allowed to pay that much to someone they didn’t know, but not to someone who was already there.