This article is bordering on flaggable. For reference, the HN title above differs from original: "Anxiety about the economy is forcing two-thirds of U.S. employers to yank budgets for raises" (emphasis mine). It opens with this:

"In 2026, US employers are expected to grant employees raises that are largely in line with what they’re receiving this year, according to a Payscale report released on Aug. 7."

Umm, wait a minute. Just seconds ago was the claim that a large majority of employers were yanking raises.

But the bullshit blog spam doesn't even match the title of the original:

"Of the respondents who said their 2026 budget for salary increases is expected to be lower than their 2025 budget, nearly two-thirds (66%), said they were “concerned about future economic conditions or business performance,” up 17 percentage points from last year."

I'll repeat that via paraphrasing: "Of those companies who are cutting comp budgets, 2/3 said..." That differs a lot from the original title, and the HN title (which I'll assume was edited for space) doesn't even make sense at that point.

This sounds like an excuse not to do raises. They were happy to up the prices during COVID, and those have not come down even though the supply chain has settled.

"Forcing"? Or making them think they can get away with it?

Why would companies cut employee raises before they raise prices?