It's utterly ridiculous the amount of sacrifice needed to get raises or even paid what is deserved.
I work in the technical industry (won't be specific because it's niche and close knit) and pay is offered for the work we do is incredibly low upfront. Me and my team had been under paid and understaffed for months. Moral was low, turnover was nuts and we couldn't get new people because the pay was so low. Eventually they started offering new hires more than the veterans.
Not just new hires but level one people getting paid the same as level 3 long term experienced employees. We kept brining it up and no one listened. I reached a point of to hell with it and went straight after the director of our team. Who said didn't know what i did or who I was in our company. He missed that my official job title didn't match my internal title which was technical engineer.
He tried to strong arm me into staying quiet and said that if I wasn't happy I could always find another job. So I did, found a job and dropped my 2 weeks on the CEOs desk, who realized what he was losing. Immediately he started asking how he could keep me. I told him my team gets raises and more head count.
He agreed and gave promotions amd raises by end of that week. I'm enjoying my new job and my old team got a nice raise for a year.
Sadly the company sank and was sold because a lot of the automation wasn't up kept but hey, I wasn't important enough to keep around, thanks for the push Daniel. My new job is easier and pays 48% more.
Remember always look out for yourself, no one else is. Companies will ignore and replace you without notice, so don't worry about taking care of them.