I have never received an inflation beating raise, not once in my life, and I'm 50 years old. The only way to get good raises is to job hop. And anyway, 3%CPI? Have they done any food shopping in the past year?
Have you seen inflation and the profiteering going on in supermarkets nowadays? My grocery bills have gone up 30% despite switching to the cheapest supermarkets and cutting out all non essentials. It's insane!