I can't find any mention of technical staff having their salary slashed. The only mention of pay cuts is the one the CEO took. Would you mind sharing a source where this is stated?
This is measuring household income, not individual income. Real household income isn't increasing because wages are rising, it's increasing because more people in a household are working.
Again, you're nitpicking. Cars aren't the only form of transportation, and vehicles and loans aren't the only expenses involved. The author advocates looking at categories of expenses rather than single items because it misrepresents the increase in expenses Americans are experiencing.
His point isn't that individual items are more expensive. His point is that necessities in broad categories have grown in price faster than the median male worker's income. It can be true that the Dodge Caravan (and all other cars) are cheaper today when adjusted for inflation, and the amount of money spent on transportation has grown faster than wages. The retail price of a Dodge Caravan does not include the higher cost of gasoline, longer commutes, rising toll fees, or increasing car loan terms.
The author's premise does not hinge of the price of single items. Sure, a Dodge Caravan in 2018 may have a lower inflation-adjusted price than the 1996 model, but the author never claimed that every individual item's price increased faster than the measured rate of inflation. He looked more broadly at the amount the median worker spends on transportation. No one buys just a Dodge Caravan. They buy the Caravan, they pay for it with a loan of a significantly longer time than you'd get in 1996, they pay for more gas (longer commutes) that is more expensive, they pay for car insurance, and tolls. This total transportation cost (plus other mandatory necessities like health insurance and rent) have grown faster than the median worker's wages.