Skilled, experienced injectors are scarce, mobile, and increasingly expensive — and the rise of well-capitalized consolidators actively recruiting them has turned injector compensation into something close to an arms race. For an independent practice, that creates a genuine trap: you can lose your best injector to a bigger offer, or you can lose your margin trying to match it. Neither is a winning move, and reflexively chasing every competing number is a fight you can't win against better-capitalized players. The escape isn't a higher figure — it's a comp structure and a workplace that compete on more than pay, so you're not fighting the arms race on its own terms.

The pressure is real and structural