That is a reflection of the incentive structure of most companies. It's not overtly in the interest of the business to pay their employees more money without e

That is a reflection of the incentive structure of most companies. It's not overtly in the interest of the business to pay their employees more money without extracting more labor from them. If a business either cared about or was at least cognizant of employee satisfaction, then rewarding good work would be a part of the management team's culture. The initiative management usually takes is in giving out new titles to employees and raises that aren't that far off from inflation, which is essentially just milking more out of employees they think will handle more work for roughly the same cost. What you are essentially saying is that employees should beg not to be devalued, which might make sense in a contractor-client relationship, but W2 employment comes with such a tilted balance of power (especially with non-competes and clauses that bar doing work for other companies on the side) that there just isn't that much to gain from trying to negotiate. Employees are better off changing jobs every few years so they can completely shed any baggage from their last position and get a much fatter paycheck. (industry variations notwithstanding) This isn't to say that I think that people are being sinister. It's just behavior that the system incentivizes.