I think there's a logical explanation for this. Low skill jobs tend to have an oversupply of labor, relative to demand, so wages are going to hover around the cost of basic living. But as that cost of basic living skyrockets, wages are going to be naturally pushed up - simply because workers cannot afford to work for less.

But for higher wage earners basic cost of living expenses (food/energy/rent/etc) make up a smaller percent of their overall income, and so they are relatively less affected. And if they don't aggressively demand their pay keep up with inflation then their relative rate of gain will naturally fall behind.

You and your son are literally on opposite ends of the current economy. Tech is in possibly the worst recession since dotcom, while in-person services and retail pay is booming

So the pay situation you describe isn’t surprising at all

Tech stocks seem to be doing quite well. Of course, it's a convenient narrative to say that our sector is struggling.

For corporations who don't have a money machine, yes, it's not a good time. You will not get new funding. For established corporations, I'd say that it's pretty sunny days, especially considering layoffs.

Better to be a shareholder than an employee. Because as profits increase most of it will be captured by the former. Leaving the latter to fight tooth and nail for their share.

What do you mean by "sector" here? The only ones doing well are massive corporations and their stock owners.

Have you looked at the sw Eng hiring landscape recently? One reason stocks are doing so well is cause of the cost cutting, layoffs, and hiring and promo freezes.

Stock prices have nothing to do with the employment landscape

What were your two salary increases like the previous 10 years? I get your son wasn't personally working those years, but a comparable worker saw little to no increases while white collar work generally trends with inflation year to year.

There was a hefty bit of catchup in the past few years for the lowest earners.

I'm going to guess that 3% of your salary is significantly more than a 70% raise for a restaurant worker. You only got a smaller raise because you chose a metric that makes it look smaller.

In a thread about wages and inflation, I'd say the relevant metric is the one that lets you compare the two. Using percentages makes it clear that the son is actually, really making more money now, whereas the parent has less purchasing power now than a year ago (assuming this occurred over one year)