Would you mind explaining your complaint further? It's rather generic and lobster pot mentality.
SOA jobs aren't the equivalent of working on Mcd's you know. You can joke about it, but you know they aren't. So I'll offer an observation. There are two "raises" people talk about. 1)The multi-year contracts where employees get a raise intended to tread water with inflation. There have may -0- years and the Leg tried to defund the final contact year last session. Not exactly fair since that's the year the bulk of the 3.5% is assigned to. 2)The actual merit step you may be referring to are experience increases. The longer you work, the more you make. Generally SOA employees make significantly less for many years than private industry, but weigh several factors of employment. So, think of it as a wage scale for time and experience. You wouldn't work for your employer for the same wage as a HS student would you, but you'd probably expect raises the longer you worked.