You know, as a much, much younger person I actually thought that there is not even a reason for raises ( I had no concept of inflation ) if you are doing the same thing over and over. Eventually, I saw just how much an average manager makes and I realized that it is literally a zero sum game. Management just gets a bigger slice if they manage to somehow bamboozle its workforce so there is a big incentive to do just that regardless of whether it sounds stupid or is even based on facts.

More amusingly, I never saw a manager pass on an increase 'to not fuel inflation' further.