I started doing the work of two people once one of my co-workers left. After a year of doing the work of two people I asked for a very minimal raise, which upper management had to sit and ponder on for 3 months to decide on giving me half of what I wanted. I was given a job offer some where else making my current salary plus 3 times more of the raise I asked for. When upper management was notified I was leaving they offered to match my offering salary. So needless to say they knew my value and had the money to pay me what I wanted but decided not to until I was leaving.
I felt the upper management/corporate office was very disconnected from the regional offices. They wouldn't think about regional factors going into yearly goals we needed to hit.