[pc86]

We got raises across the board this year that are about 2/3 of the current annual inflation rate, which is not a lot of money month-to-month but is more than I expected tbh.

It's also important to note that wage inflation and the inflation of goods and services are separate and not always correlated. Just because milk and bread and cars cost more doesn't mean that the value provided to a company by an hour of an employee's time has risen by the same amount (or at all). I'd love raises that beat inflation every year, and for most of my career I've gotten them, but now that I'm not it doesn't necessarily mean the company is just trying to screw its employees.

[CapstanRoller]

The correlation between "value provided to the company" and "salary paid to retain a worker" is much lower than you might believe.

Also, critical parts of employee retention include "keep the worker alive" and "keep the worker satisfied". If housing goes up 20%, the wage better increase by 20% as well. Homeless or unstably housed engineers are not productive engineers.

[pc86]

It's important to keep in mind we're talking about engineers, who make good money. Unless you're already making very bad financial decisions, nobody on HN is getting evicted because your raise is 4% instead of 6%.

These are all very good arguments for why people making $15/hr should get regular raises to keep pace with inflation as a matter of course, not a very good argument for why someone making $200k copy-pasting JavaScript from StackOverflow should.

[CapstanRoller]

>nobody on HN is getting evicted because your raise is 4% instead of 6%

That's an unfounded assertion. I know plenty of software devs & other tech industry folks who cannot afford a house and are being squeezed by relentless rent increases (myself included). Many on the lower end of the pay range are a layoff away from homelessness.