But that doesn&#x27;t make any sense. Ostensibly, you were being paid market rate before. If you were to leave, maybe you&#x27;ll be able to get a raise at another position, maybe not, but the other employees at your company don&#x27;t change that.<p>Okay so now you&#x27;re in a situation where other people who don&#x27;t work as hard or as smart as you are getting paid close to you, or the same. That doesn&#x27;t feel good, but what happens next? Well, if you continue working harder than them, you&#x27;ll be promoted and get a raise, and they won&#x27;t.  And there, the system re-corrects itself.<p>Now, I COULD buy the argument that seeing people who you know don&#x27;t work as hard suddenly make the same money as you would make you yourself get lazy and not try as hard. Because surely they can&#x27;t fire you for performing the same as the rest. But if that&#x27;s the type of person you are, maybe the company would be better off without you anyway?