For me it was during the 2nd year after becoming a Journeyman at 25 everything started making sense.
It dawned on me that the annual increase in pay would never catch up with general price increase of everything or even the super-underestimated “official” inflation numbers.
That i could work my way up to project manager in 10-15 more years, only to get paid the same as i was with overtime hours as a supervisor, just by getting a higher base salary and not being paid for overtime.
What i dont understand is how many people seem completely fine with it.