If you don't have a contract, including a union agreement, which guarantees or specifies a certain raise, you only get the raise your employer wants to give you: raises are not mandatory, and are completely discretionary on the employee's part except when guaranteed them by a contract. So regardless of the reason they gave you, without a contract specifying the raise to which you are entitled, they may limit your raise to anything they like--and did not have to give you a raise at all.