What do you mean either way? If your income keeps up with inflation or grows faster then you're not screwed. See every software job in the US and the massive difference between L3 and L5 for example
Not everyone works in a field that pays as well as software does. People working in the service sector don't make a minimum wage even if they work hard. So why work hard?
What are L3 and L5?
I think GP means this: different companies call them different things, but the difference between a Sr. Software Engineer compensation and Staff Engineer compensation can be 100% in some companies.