{
  "id": "golden-handcuffs.incentive",
  "term": "golden handcuffs",
  "sense": "incentive",
  "pos": "noun",
  "status": "review",
  "level": 19,
  "domain": "employment",
  "style": "folk",
  "definition": "the pay creates a wall that keeps the people's stay parameter within the window, stopping the drift of that parameter toward the outside, so the pay itself acts as a trap",
  "folk_gloss": "a job that pays so well you can't afford to quit",
  "emergence": {
    "components": [
      "pay.economic",
      "create.production",
      "wall.range-end",
      "keep.maintenance",
      "people.social",
      "parameter.condition",
      "window.range",
      "stop.action",
      "drift.aimless",
      "outside.spatial",
      "act.deed",
      "trap.undesirable"
    ],
    "interaction": "the pay creates a wall that keeps the stay parameter within the window, stopping its drift outward",
    "novel_properties": [
      "compensatory constraint"
    ]
  },
  "examples": [],
  "relations": [],
  "used_by": [],
  "forms": [
    "golden handcuffs"
  ],
  "closed": true,
  "provenance": {
    "author": "phrases:openai/gpt-oss-120b",
    "date": "2026-07-29",
    "confidence": 0.7,
    "sources": [
      "folk phrase — the trap that pays to stay in"
    ]
  },
  "canonical": "https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-golden-handcuffs.incentive"
}