How is it artificial?
Genuinely curious.
My pay hasn't changed since 2019 but my outgoings have increased massively.
Since my last pay rise, rent has increased by £300 a month, gas/electricity has increased by £150 month, council tax has increased by £50 a month, fuel for the car and food...I'm too scared to work out how much more I'm paying per month because frankly I spend whatever is left on those but the sum total means I no longer have the money to pay for my train commute to the office on a daily basis.
There are WFH people who have had no choice but to assign their commuting budget to another part of the household expenditure and now can't carve it back out again because everything is so expensive.
For those who never had WFH it's a different challenge, but more akin to boiling frog because they've had to absorb the costs as they've been going along. Those WFH who are now being expected to return to their offices are feeling the sharp shock of that rather acutely.