NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) – As the demand for skilled employees increases, companies in several industries are paying more to hire talent these days. So where does that leave you, the faithful, high-performing employee who snagged your job between 2001 and 2004, aka the "you're just lucky to have a paycheck" years?

Very possibly making less than the new guy. Pay inequity can be an issue companies face when the price to hire those with skills like yours has gone up since you were hired. Indeed, if you work in an industry where the war for talent is in full swing, employers are sweetening the pot to attract candidates of your caliber.

Quiz Take the quiz Do you deserve a raise? Before asking, know your strengths and weaknesses. 1. If you left the company, how easy or hard would it be for the company to replace you? Easy      Hard This quiz is adapted from Are You Paid What You're Worth?, by Michael O'Malley (Broadway Books, $15).

Hot times, hiring in the city In some cities and industries, the demand for talent is on the rise. City  Job-seeker's market  New York  Technology, accounting, finance   San Francisco  Technology, retail, real estate   West Palm Beach, Fla.  Retail, health care, finance   Denver  Technology, health care, accounting   Columbus, Ohio  Finance    Source: Yahoo! HotJobs

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Beyond potentially higher starting salaries, some of the plums on offer may include signing bonuses, profit sharing, performance-based bonuses, and money to relocate or lease a car, said Marc Karasu, career expert at Yahoo! Hot Jobs.

For more senior people, he said, a company might even throw in a country club membership or offer to pad a down payment for a home if a candidate is being asked to move to a more expensive area.

The war for talent isn't a factor in every industry. But it certainly is in information technology (especially software and engineering), accounting and healthcare, Karasu said.

Manufacturing and field engineers are also in high demand, while in some cities, finance and retail jobs are growing.

Good companies will be proactive about rectifying any imbalance between new hires and peer employees already onboard, said David Russo, the chief people officer for recruitment services provider PeopleClick.

If they're smart, Russo said, they'll come to you and tell you they're bringing your compensation up to market. One common way to do this is to put a current employee on an accelerated pay review schedule, said Jerry Mattern, who is a member of the Society for Human Resource Management's panel on compensation, benefits and total rewards.

If, say, the company determines that it needs to accelerate your pay 5 percent to get up to market, it may choose to bump up pay by 2.5 percent in six months and then by the rest six months after that. For top performers, they may give a slightly greater increase, Mattern said.

But in his nearly 40 years in human resources, Russo said he's only seen about 20 percent of companies take the proactive route.

More typically a company will wait for you to pipe up, a naïve and risky move for employers facing a shortage of qualified workers. They may be able to attract new hires, but they're pushing older hires to look elsewhere. "It creates a revolving-door situation," Russo said. "And the cost of turnover is so damn expensive."

In fact, it costs a company about 1.5 times your salary and 53 days on average to replace you if you decide to jump ship, according to research from human capital measurement firm PricewaterhouseCoopers Saratoga.

Having to approach your boss -- rather than the other way around -- also creates a dilemma for the employee. One strategy to boost your pay is to shop yourself around, get a better offer, and take it to your boss to see if he or she can match it. But Russo and Karasu note that employers may assume you're disloyal. And even if they match your competing offer, they may view you less favorably going forward.

It's better to have a good sense of your market worth but take a cooperative rather than confrontational approach, Karasu said. Tell your boss you really enjoy your job and would hate to leave but you realize the landscape is changing and perhaps the two of you could review your compensation package to see how to bring it up to market.

Keep in mind, Russo said, that what's considered market pay used to change every two years or so, but now in industries where demand for skilled labor is high it can change every six to nine months.

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