You have it exactly backwards. A low level person might get a 6% raise from that $0.43/hr. That's a lot! Someone making six figures on the other hand is getting

You have it exactly backwards. A low level person might get a 6% raise from that $0.43/hr. That's a lot! Someone making six figures on the other hand is getting a sub-1% raise. To say nothing of the use they have for those dollars. That might be the difference between fixing a car or not to a lower level person. To a higher level person it's a new console. Meanwhile, "employee of the month bagging groceries and promotion to sr. Bagger" doesn't mean much, but a higher level person is likely to value something like a title bump that they use on their resume to get the next job.