I haven't seen that, but the "alternative rewards" suggestion seems to comes up a lot when talking about retention. However, it's at best disingenuous if the goal of doing those things is to pay people less. You're just not fully aligned with your employees needs. I would argue that if a company really does those things well then they are also dealing with the salary issue well.
Unless the motivation of salary (read: financial independence) is taken off the table, it will always be a significant factor in employee satisfaction, in spite of other factors. The gap between staying and leaving is just far too large to ignore it.
I know someone who currently works somewhere they intensely dislike being but they pay well over the local market and while he would take somewhat of a pay cut to be somewhere else, the gap is larger than that. Perhaps when he's more financially independent this will change but for now he's still earning that independence, and working somewhere that pays well means achieving that far sooner.
Unless the motivation of salary (read: financial independence) is taken off the table, it will always be a significant factor in employee satisfaction, in spite of other factors. The gap between staying and leaving is just far too large to ignore it.
I know someone who currently works somewhere they intensely dislike being but they pay well over the local market and while he would take somewhat of a pay cut to be somewhere else, the gap is larger than that. Perhaps when he's more financially independent this will change but for now he's still earning that independence, and working somewhere that pays well means achieving that far sooner.