Does anyone else feel like they need to race to get wage raises in order to keep up with inflation and the pace of "adulting"?

I feel like a lot of us started our careers with "barely livable" wages, with or without degrees. And with the way life has been going since our college years, we can't just sit comfortably in our original positions for very long because our income becomes obsolete in a handful of years. Like even gen X and late millennials were able to graduate college and just follow the natural progression of regular raises and are able to save for a house, or afford having more children. And for us, that's going to take us decades of fighting for promotions or raises, or job hopping. And I know so many people our agrle going back to school for another degree or graduate degrees just to stay in a "semi-comfortable" income. It feels like a race with time and the economy. If wr just do "what was expected" of us back in high school and early college, we're practically losing the value of our income.