It actually could have raised wages 19 percent more and still have lower labor costs. You can lower your labor costs by cutting pay. Well maybe you can. Maybe you can't. Providing, of course, that the new engineers are just as capable as the high-priced ones and your productivity won't suffer.
Labor costs are a significant portion of total costs.
That's true, but only sometimes. Labor costs vary widely from industry to industry. In others, especially manufacturing, labor costs may be 20 percent of total costs. But labor costs are, on the surface, the easiest to cut. Just order everyone to take a pay cut.