'[They hired] someone for $30k more salary than me': All-star employee quits after 3 years with a company when they hire an unqualified outsider for 2x the pay

Whenever a company says it can't afford a raise for its current employees, that's obviously only limited to workers already on its roster. This all-star employee learned the hard way that, after hemming and hawing over her pay increase request, her company was more than willing to pay an outsider $30k more than her for the same position. 

Loyalty to the workplace is not a thing in 2024 and whatever the Boomers might think ("nObOdY wAnTs tO wOrK aNyMoRe"), the reason for that isn't because employee work ethic is declining, it's because companies treat their employees like replaceable trash. 

Despite working themselves to the bone and lengthening their work day beyond 10+ hours at work, u/Brief_Grade_6679 was working hard to cover the bases on their floor. Experienced in their niche industry and overqualified for nearly every position in their department, they felt like they were a shoo-in for the newly opened lead position over the team, except their boss didn't think a raise like that could be found in the budget… However, they did manage to find a $30k loophole in the hiring department after bringing on an inexperienced n00b to fill the position.