Question 27656
Situation 1: 5% then 6% then 7% raises.  Your initial salery is x. After year 1 your salery is (x*1.05) After year two your new salery (x*1.05) is increased by a factor of 1.06, so it's now (x*1.05*1.06) after year 3 your salery is
{{{x*1.05*1.06*1.07=1.19091*x}}} So you've netted a 19.09% salery gain.

Situation 2: 6% raise each year.  Your initial salery is x, next year it's (x*1.06), year 2 it's (x*1.06*1.06) and year 3 it's:
{{{(x*1.06*1.06*1.06)=1.191016x}}} And this time your salery has increased 19.10% a greater increase than through situation 1.  Not only that, but it's also greater during year 1 (1.06 vs 1.05 raise) and greater during year 2 (1.1236 vs 1.113 total raise). So it's clearly the better pay scale.