If good IT work is in high demand as claimed, that shouldn't be a problem. And "we make sure customers don't abuse our staff" should be the baseline of "how do I keep any good employees I might have", not a luxury.

If anything my ex-employer would be pissed that they skipped the line on being abusive to me.

I ended up getting fired within 18 hours after reporting harassment.

I mean, now you've got a strong case for wrongful termination and a report of retaliatory termination to your state's DoL.

There's a perception among management that they need to remain competitive. The IT service truly isn't a oligopoly like telcos are. My company hasn't increased rates in over 4 years out of fear that we would lose business even though we have more business than we have the resources to handle.

In most situations, the client is the business and the offender an employee.