It is bizarre that so many people tolerate this behavior by employers yet also cling to ideas about compensation being linked to the value of the work being per

It is bizarre that so many people tolerate this behavior by employers yet also cling to ideas about compensation being linked to the value of the work being performed (things like 'work hard and you will make more'). If compensation is determined based primarily upon the value of the work being done, prior salary could not be more irrelevant. But of course, what people are paid has nothing to do with the value of their work any longer. Computers and software unfortunately make that socially untenable. They make employees so abundantly productive, and increase that productivity so quickly, that it would have to translate into very high salaries and high annual raises for many, if not most, employees. It doesn't take a genius to look at the average profitability of corporations overall since 1980 to see the meteoric rise coupled with total wage stagnation for non-executives. Get 2% more productive, then a 2% raise is acceptable. Get 100% more productive, then a comparable raise is unacceptable. Especially if "the computer is doing all the work."