The only deeply cynical part of this is the idea that it's some kind of nefarious plot to steal those wages back. It's not, it's a simple and direct consequence of the fact that in order for people to buy things with their wages those things must first be produced. Right now the world has hit current production limits on critical inputs like energy, raw materials, and semiconductor devices, as well as having labour shortages in many countries. There simply isn't enough stuff for people to be able to buy as much with their income as they used to, and so income is falling behind inflation. Pushing up wages doesn't fix that, it just means that inflation has to be even higher in order for demand to match up with what can actually be supplied. It's not possible to make workers as a whole better off in real terms this way, except maybe by making retirees so poor they're forced back in to work to survive as well.
All else being equal, there is some maximum number of workers that can receive wage increases before inflation in consumer goods rises a tenth of a percent. Imagine that we held a national lottery and the winners of the lotto received a wage increase. Those people could, indeed, buy more.
We need to bridge the gap in the dialog between the lived experience of the individual worker and the statistical experience of the nation's workers.
