So... this is pretty stupid, a raise in pay certainly might help.
However, from the perspective of a career spent managing teams, often organizations with hundreds of employees, if you think your people are all solely motivated by compensation, you're going to do a very poor job as a manager.
Everyone wants more money, but that's not all they want -- and there are plenty of people who quit high paying jobs that treated them poorly or gave them no opportunity to grow.
Think about appropriate compensation as necessary, but often not sufficient -- and think about the best boss you ever had. They probably did more than just pay you fairly, that's the bare minimum.
I've seen reference to research showing pretty much what you're saying: Inadequate pay gives dissatisfied employees, but raising pay above a certain level only gives very short term increase in employee satisfaction. The conclusion was that pay has to be high enough that people feel fairly compensated, but further increasing it has little to no long-term effect.
Seriously. Another comment pointed out there's "not enough money" and "enough money" for wages. Depending on which side you're on money may not be the reason someone quits. My previous job paid me enough, but the business partner was so dangerously incompetent, reckless, agressive, and unwilling to do their own job that I quit out of frustration. I made it very clear to my boss' boss that it wasn't about money, and I wasn't going to tell them what my new compensation was. It isn't his business. My issue was the business partner. Within a few months a few other people quit working there too for the same reason.
Exactly. "Pay people enough, " is table stakes. It's good business strategy and it's a basic moral duty. "Grossly over pay people, " is probably not good business strategy; even if you do, it isn't going to make up for being a shitty place to work
Yeah, I get what you’re saying, but between more money and a ping pong table, which do you think most people would choose? If they wanted to imply a more casual/fun/less-stress environment, they should have said that, but implying a ping pong table would motivate people to stay is like thinking dangling your keys in front of a baby to stop its crying will keep it happy forever. At least a pay raise is helpful to me.