I’m starting to see this in my environment (UC system) as well. My group is getting an equity increase shortly (after a few years of essentially flat salaries) and there is a rumour that there will be a system-wide salary bump with my job class to keep us competitive against the private sector.

My take is everything trends and for the last couple years especially there has been a ‘f!ck the employee’ mentality amongst big employers. Cut salaries, raises, benefits, outsource, lay people off, etc. Basically cost cutting instead of growing business.

This policy is starting to cause some blowback, as the smart folks realize they have to change jobs to make more money/benefits. This results in a brain drain, as well as accumulating lots of dead wood in their place. Hardly a recipe for success. Places like Google, on the other hand, realize that top employees are literally worth their weight in gold and are doing everything they can to attract and retain them. This has worked well for them, if you check out their stock price. Their competitors are starting to take note as well.