I can see how this comes across as naive or elitist, but it wasn't meant that way. My past experience is from working in farming, then manual labor, then skill

I can see how this comes across as naive or elitist, but it wasn't meant that way. My past experience is from working in farming, then manual labor, then skilled labor, then engineering, then hospitality, then technology. In none of the fields other than technology did I feel that myself or my colleagues were viewed as anything other than a source of costs by management. Even when our contributions were praised by customers as the reason why they continued their business with the company, we were barely rewarded with more than a pat on the back. Perfection was assumed as the standard, however it was not rewarded as such. It was not until I taught myself to program, with the help of a great number of people, and jumped over to working in the tech industry that my managers looked at me as a source of value in the company, as the reason why the company made money, and as less than disposable. That is not to say that my experience is everyone's experience, and I didn't mean to imply such an extreme position as "only in technology can you be valued as a worker". If you work in healthcare, or law, or the sciences, or manufacturing, or construction, or education and your organization values you then I applaud you and efforts. With that said I still feel that it's a tough road ahead to get the compensation you deserve. Even when the economy is strong, it is hard to get a raise, and people have been waiting on those raises for a long time. I sure hope they can get them.