So just to ballpark this, if the average salary is $50,000 and the total cost of employment is $100,000 per year that makes for a run rate of $40 million per year. Over 24 years, assuming average no of employees was half that, that's about $500 million in sunk costs.

Totally made up numbers, but any chance I'm within a factor of 2? Posted only so somebody who knows what they're talking about can ridicule me with actually realistic numbers.