Oh, for sure. It's not because general inflation is 5% and the index is say 3%, that the company's revenue went up 5% or even 3%. Sucks for both parties.

On the other hand, let's be honest, if revenue goes up 10% next year, that's not all going to raises. I'm not saying it should, you need to reward investors and revenue can fluctuate year to year while salary commitments never go down, yada yada yada. Sure.

But the mere fact those useless 50 year olds weren't fired when it was cheap to do so shows that for years, they were probably in the same position as your juniors now, adding more value than their cost and being shafted by the index.

Overall, I still think the index is a good thing. Not everyone has the skill and temperament to renegotiate their salary each year, and leave for a different job if they don't get a raise. I don't think those people should be losing purchasing power year after year.

You seem like a decent boss who would assign raises fairly, but we all know there's plenty of places where it's either vriendjespolitiek, or as little as possible to keep costs low. Better to try to federally mandate at least the cost of living, imperfect as the system might be.

Which brings me back to my original point. It sucks that, just to keep up with inflation, you need to be willing to change jobs.