You can hire programmers if you are willing to pay at or above the market price. We're onto something here. The trick is that money is not everyone's number one motivator, in fact, it's not even the number one consideration for most people. There are other things that matter more, and, luckily, most of those things are cheaper than money. I love Julia Roberts.
Work needs to be rewarding and pleasant .
Doing things that make work rewarding and pleasant is the most important part of attracting people. They were roughly equivalent. The salaries were pretty close. People were starting to look like mushrooms. There were torn Dilbert cartoons all over the cubicles.