Please provide evidence to back up your selection.
I see many people talk about how they are underpaid, but I cannot understand why, if that is true, they don't leave and get another job. I myself believe that I am wildly overpaid for the amount of work I do, but I've been able to justify my pay at the hourly rate level (using GSA schedules and comparing hourly rates for similar jobs) -- I have just been working more consistently than most in my field.
Well, I am underpaid.
I know this because for a couple of years, I was involved in hiring my contemporaries, one of whom worked for me. I know their salaries. The lowest paid of the 4 people we hired at my level made $12k more than me. The highest paid was around $30k. The two highest paid were completely incapable of doing the job (one got laid off, the other - well, boss was not successful in laying him off because he'd made friends with the CEO). Of course this was after about 6 months of me either training them to do their jobs or just continuing to do it for them so stuff would keep moving. All of this happened during a 4 year stretch of NO raises.
Added to that, I can simply look at the average salaries in my industry at my level of experience and know that they are $25-30k a year more than I made ($25k for women, $30k for men).
So...why don't I just get another job? I live in a small city. Not a lot of industry here. Despite the high cost of living. I have looked for another job off and on. The offer I got wasn't great (and the company, scary). The offer I didn't get? Well, they just had layoffs.
As I'm the "lesser" income of the two in our household, we aren't going to be moving a different city for my job. When a lot of people talk about "why don't you get another job" they don't factor in the 2-career couple. Aside from moving to the Bay Area (which I don't want to do), we, as a family, are going to have to make compromises.
I still keep my eye out for other local jobs, but I admit that I'm picky. With the changes in our company (and widespread layoffs), I have a great boss and a lot of flexibility. I have 2 kids who are 10 and 4. So, while I'd love to get a job for $25k more than I'm making now, it would come with more stress and longer hours (you know engineering/ high tech. Long hours.)
Salaries at many companies in town are depressed because there's a small core of people who live here, work here, and bought their houses cheaply. They can afford to work for less. Small companies in semiconductors come and go in this town.