They know that employees’ costs are up 20-30%.
And that there’s still a labor shortage.
And when you don’t give a raise, employees will either:
1. Quit or
2. Reduce their productivity to more than compensate for the reduced buying power (I.e. if buying power is down 20%, I’ll reduce my productivity by 50%. Gotta factor in the spite tax.)
So in either scenario the employer loses way more money than if they’d just given a raise.
Do they honestly think people are gonna just smile and take it?
Funny to see