Edie I really think you have a retro idea of what a good salary is, based somewhere in the 90s or something. I'm also guessing that you bought a house a while ago. In most 'professional' jobs now 50k would be a very low salary to be aiming for, what with general inflation and of course house price inflation. In much of England now you couldn't buy a good family house on a salary of 50k. If two people in a couple earned that they could buy quite a small house in outer London, but why should salaries be set at levels where only couples can buy?
Of course many people are earning peanuts and struggling to eat etc. That's a matter of policy by the government. It doesn't help anyone to keep salaries down elsewhere, except at the very top end of the salary spectrum - but that top end is mostly not occupied by consultants, it's occupied by parasites who work in finance, management consulting etc, and lucky buggers whose hobby of coding suddenly became in high demand (most of the high earners on here I suspect). So lots of essentially worthless jobs now pay way more than being a doctor, but the comparison you want to make is with what nurses get paid? Anyway, it should be a no-brainer to say that in useful jobs everyone's salary should be going up or at least keeping pace with inflation. The only time I'd question the need for raises is in those parasitic jobs where people are getting £100k+ a year for fleecing people.