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You left out a bigger factor, in my opinion: tracking compensation to inflation or the success of the business, not market rates.

If the market rate for an engineer is (making up numbers) 35% higher than it was in 2010, each engineer better be making at least 1.35 times what they were five years ago. Probably more, considering they're likely better at what they do than they were five years ago.

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Market rate means nothing to employers. If they could give you 3% raise per year and get away with it, they would. The only way for non-union developers to protect their interest is to look out.

Market rate means something to employers - it's the rate they need to pay you more than, if they don't want you to have lots of better options for where to work. If you don't have lots of better options for where to work, you're more likely to stick around, and less distracted while you're doing so.

Show me a union worth five minute of talking to as a software engineer, and I'll talk to them. I've yet to see anything worth even a minimal effort, and I have looked. I've yet to see a single one that offers to actually improve my life.

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