I’m earning $62,500 after starting as a f/t Great Desert University faculty member at $35,000 about 15 years ago; if I stay for a total of 20 years, I may reach $67,200. But only because I quit teaching and moved to a quasi-administrative job. If I were still teaching, I’d be earning about $50,000 and wouldn’t have a snowball’s chance of ever making more than 60 grand. Probably would never reach that threshold. State employees–especially K-12 teachers and university faculty–may go for years at a time without a COLA increase; in other years we may get COLA increases but no merit raises. This year, no one at my university will get either.

Fifty thousand would probably buy the same as $35,000 did 15 years ago. Sixty-two thousand buys more, no question of it: the house I live in is more expensive to maintain than the one I had then, I pay a lot more (relatively) for gas, food, and clothing, and I put more into savings.

So, while I’d agree that the raises you get in the normal course of sitting in a job for 15 or 20 years just keep up with inflation, I think the amount your salary would grow is probably less than the figures shown. It’s important to get promotions or move into better-paying jobs with other employers as time passes.