The vast majority of employees are not at the top of their pay scale. If you told them their salary will never grow faster then inflation, unlike you they would look for another job.

The average growth in corporate income over the past two decades is 4%/year. That’s comparable to what the average employee expects from their long-term salary growth.

I think it’s disingenuous to keep pushing this idea that corporations cannot survive without ever increasing income.

What would happen if your employer said you would never again get a raise? Most people would probably start looking for another job. At a minimum, they expect their long-term income to keep with inflation.

But if employee salaries are expected to grow over time, then so are the company revenues that pay those salaries. A company whose revenues stop growing is like an employee whose salary stops growing. They will not last long at whatever they are doing.