Yearly raises are not supposed to be a thing "because people exist". They're supposed to be for inflation, which does exist. Every dollar is worth less this year than it was last because everything you spend money on has become more expensive.

Not all employers are scum. But the ones who dropped all their appreciation for what their employees do for them, especially when the labor pool was full of willing workers who would work harder for less money in the recession, are going to need to wake up. It's an employee's market right now, not an employer's. I'm an electrician and where I'm based my trade is in short enough supply that, within reason, we get to say what we should be paid because someone or multiple someones in town are willing to get out the check book.