If you’ve been fortunate enough to receive CPI inflation indexed raises every year over the past 5 years at your place of employment, your time is still being purchased by your employer at a 25-30% discount when measured against real inflation. You are working a quarter to a third of your week for free in real purchasing terms.

If you have received only one sub 5% raise in that time, you are now effectively getting paid 80% of what you were making 5 years ago.