If you have to pay people 10X just to put up with you, maybe it would be more cost effective to hire a different CEO. You could pay the CEO 2X, the engineer 1X, and that would save you 7X!
You don't like compensating people well? It's my goal. It's not always possible, but I'd like everyone working with me to be paid extremely well, have great resources, and produce rates of work that only happen in a culture of inspired well-equipped well-trained autonomy. I want top paid people, comprehensive benefits, complete healthcare, and serious investments in quality training.
Howard Schultz's autobiography "Pour Your Heart Into It" is a good read if you want to learn more.
If you're overpaying people for their level of talent, that actually is a problem.
Firstly you're wasting money for no extra value return. And it will leave you with the reputation of "that guy who pays stupid amounts of money" rather than "that guy who hires the best".
Secondly it gives you the expectation of "I am paying them loads more, so they should have more devotion to the project". In reality this doesn't always work out - better to get them enthused in the project and offer rewards in the context of the success of the project (this is why big companies don't pay higher and higher rates to get the best talent - but instead use bonuses and other incentives).
Thirdly it gets the business into the culture of overpaying; I've seen several companies do this, and at some point in the future you will run into the point where it is not possible to keep paying that rate. Reducing a super-high salary to baseline is de-motivating - you'll get employees just losing engagement and thinking "hey, I could just get a 'normal' job". Empirically; I've seen a number of companies fail purely through this factor.
I want top paid people, comprehensive benefits, complete healthcare, and serious investments in quality training.
This, however, is a good way to approach it. Pay the standard levels of salary and shift the rest of the money into value for the employee. If they are getting a couple of weeks training and conference attendance, new equipment, top notch business support etc. from you then they will be much more inclined to stick around.
It is a much more effective way to buy loyalty/support.
