Look, it's sector wide, the small, the big, the medium companies are top heavy with older management that will have to die or retire before the "junior guys" get promoted.
And they ain't retiring--according to this article, companies are trying to retain them at the expense (quite literally) of the younger guys.
I’m curious to see what happens to these companies once the old boys retire. They still have to pay their fat pensions, and there is no one underneath.
A relative of mine is in the utility business. They cut costs by not hiring new engineers, or training tradesmen for the last twenty years. Now as people retire they are desperate and in some cases beyond desperate. Some work is simply not getting done because there is not enough people.
And here is another problem; they are so accustomed to bringing young engineers in for low wages.. those engineers just happy to get a job.. that they are offering low. Like 70k a year. The engineers with some experience come and see the offer and the average home at 600k and laugh. And going to the private sector, where wages are gapping up.
Thats the danger for your company not giving you big money, smaller more nimble companies win a contract and are willing to pay whatever it takes to get people with skill. Big companies and governments have pay scales that virtually can not change. Any sudden change would upset people making less and higher up.