I'm a team member (sorry...employee) who has worked with the company since 2016. I started just before all the sh– hit the fan earning minimum pay. I have since moved myself up to an hourly wage that will give me about $54k/year base. That was four years of hard work, taking every opportunity I could, working 5 am - 8 pm during late December OT hours in my line of business, communicating my goals with management, and applying into a different line of business within the company. On year end I was given a rating of "consistently met expectations and sometimes exceeded".
I'm not someone who makes minimum pay nor someone who makes over 150k. All I can say that if I was making $150k base pay, you bet your f—ing a– I'd be p-ss-d off at not getting merit increase. Merit increase should be there regardless of pay rate. The fact the company is choosing to limit it at $150k is complete b—s— and will only drive good workers to start looking for other opportunities.
It's a bad decision, and hopefully it will be reversed like the 401k match was. But I suspect they are trying to drive attrition so they can avoid laying off (excuse me...DISPLACING) more people.