<i>"Good IT talent is really hard to find," he says. "And if you’re a superstar, are you gonna work for Delta because you get free flights now and then, or are you gonna work for Google or Facebook, or a billion dollar startup that is giving you stock options?"</i><p>Delta made $4.5 billion in net profits on $41 billion in revenues in 2015[1]. If IT talent was the key to their ongoing profitability, surely they could attract some top-notch talent if they were willing to spend a couple of billion dollars on higher salaries. (If you have billions of dollars to spend, you can match the total value of Google's compensation package. The value of Google stock options is easily matched by giving Delta employees extra cash that they can invest in the tech stocks of their choice.)<p>[1] <a href="http://finance.yahoo.com/quote/DAL/financials?p=DAL" rel="nofollow">http://finance.yahoo.com/quote/DAL/financials?p=DAL</a>