My wife is currently playing Santa Claus with some of her employees. Her company has a system in place where they go through existing employees and identify those most likely to be poached and give them raises to bring them up to industry standards. Usually, these are 5-10% surprise raises that are delivered to key employees every couple of years, but right now she's giving out some great raises, as there's some serious wage pressure going on. People are getting raises of $20,000 or more. Some are getting bonuses, as well.

One young, rising worker is going to get a call today informing her that she's getting a 40% raise. I've got to think that call is going to make someone very happy.