[alistairSH]

Employers will increase your wages just enough to keep you from leaving.

With structural disincentives to leaving (medical coverage in the US), that is almost always a less-than-inflation amount.

Do employers even call it a COL increase any more? My employer "rebranded" the annual raises as "merit increases" many years ago.

[kccqzy]

All of my employers, current and past, have or had only merit increases. COL increases are unheard of.

[wing-_-nuts]

How big are your merit raises, typically?

[kccqzy]

Typically around 7%.