This is the issue with letting COLA types of pay increases lapse, then that employer may fall out of favor, be known to not treat people right and it could steamroll to where they can't get talent.
That's probably true, but in this company's case, it was because they had a hiring freeze for most of that three years, and a "la la la la I can't hear you" policy to middle management that begged to let them hire more people after that.
Or the few times they did allow it, about 2x more people left than they approved to be hired during that time period so the employee count still went down.
