Originally Posted by TheBaron

Let's look at some numbers that are a little more relative to people in our income bracket instead of per capita mean.
My truck averages 13 mpg...about 925 gallons a year for 12,000 miles. If gas goes up $1 I'm out an extra $925 a year because of "inflation." Now if my family made U.S. median family income (all races) of approx $50,000, my 3% raise would leave me a whopping $575 after I paid my fuel bill. Not much left after taxes.
I, fortunately, do a little better. My wide body F/O 3% will be about $4500, give of take a few hundred. Even after taxes take their bite, I will be doing a lot better than the "median family."
Not saying I don't want a larger raise and more realistic per diem, but to say 3% doesn't keep up with inflation is not entirely true. It's easy to manipulate data to support your point of view.