Want to Hire and Retain Good Workers? Pay Up.

Remodeling: By the time Robert Criner realized his mistake, it was too late. One of Criner’s best workers told him that he was leaving to work for a competing remodeling company. The reason? The company was willing to pay $1 more per hour. Criner thought that he was paying fairly. But after doing some research, he discovered that he was paying a full dollar less an hour than his competition. “I gave everyone a $1 an hour raise on the spot,” says Criner, president of Criner Remodeling, in Newport News, Va. “But I still lost a good man.”