The class and jobs that suffered during the Pandy have rebounded and the people who benefiting greatly during it are now taking their haircut.

I was an essential employee during those years and switched to tech so I got the bad with the bad.

Also generational and geopolitical factors play a large factor as well. Inflation will become wage inflation for the next decade. If I were a mega corp I would be trying to retain talent now rather than have to pay even more to get freshers from a smaller and smaller pool.