Good point. Now that you mention that, it seems to match my observations. I earned more raises with my professional slacker Sim, while the Sim I'm playing hasn't earned a raise in his entire young adult life (I've been taking it easy and socialize with coworkers the whole time).
Do raises "carry over" as you get promoted though? If I earn a raise at level 1 and then get promoted, do I earn the base level 2 salary or is getting promoted just going to add a certain amount on top of my already raised value? If it resets to base value at each promotion, I'm never going to work hard until the top of the career. No point since the raises early on are pathetic amounts anyway, and if they don't even carry into higher levels it's a waste of time.
It seems from what I have observed that these raises do indeed add to the base salary and are carried over. I got a raise last night from the "Work Hard" of $33 an hour which is the biggest one I have gotten yet.