Been working for a local university for 6, going on 7 years. I was told by my boss (the department head) multiple times throughout to remind him to give me a raise later due to my saving his ass multiple times. The school merged our department with at least 3 others last year and booted my boss out, replacing him with someone from a different department. I asked her for a raise in November because my wages stagnated over the years, and now I can't pay rent without selling my plasma twice a week. I got the run-around for months, and now I'm told they don't DO regular raises. Just “merit-based” annual raises of 2-3% on average. Highest I've gotten in the time I've worked here was 3%, once. The other times, between 0.5% and 2%. And that's apparently the average for everyone here.
But “we're a team,” and “we look after each other.”