Mark Wray was working at the concession stand of a movie theater when the pandemic lockdowns hit last year. The movie theater shut down, and he lost his job.

But instead of looking for another low-wage job, Wray sought a different path. He found a program teaching basic technology and business skills, completed it and landed a job at a fast-growing online mortgage lender. He started in March, working in customer service and tech support. He makes about $55,000 a year, compared with $17,000 at the movie theater.

“The pandemic, weirdly, was an opportunity,” said Wray, 25, who is a high school graduate and lives in Charlotte, North Carolina. “And this job is a huge steppingstone for me.”

People returning to the workforce after the pandemic are expecting more from their employers, pushing companies to raise pay, give bonuses and improve health care and tuition plans.

Paychecks are getting bigger. Wages rose strongly in July, up 4% from a year earlier, according to the Labor Department. For workers in leisure and hospitality businesses, pay increased nearly 10%.

Yet many workers are also seeking something else: a career path, not a dead-end job.

In recent months, companies have struggled to fill jobs for tasks such as waiting on tables, stocking shelves or flipping burgers. Nearly 40% of former workers in the nation’s hospitality industry say they do not plan to go back to jobs in hotels, restaurants or bars, according to a survey by Joblist, an employment search engine.

For many workers, the issue is less about bargaining for more money in a tight labor market than about finding a job with a brighter future.

“People in lower-wage work are saying, ‘I’m going to pivot to something better,’ ” said Stuart Andreason, director of the Center for Workforce and Economic Opportunity at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta.

Their demands already are reshaping corporate policies. Major employers of lower-wage hourly workers including Walmart, Chipotle and Amazon have announced improvements to their tuition and training programs. Even Amazon, which has huge turnover among workers in its warehouses, has started to talk more about helping improve its employees’ long-term prospects.

Some companies are featuring their newfound or heightened commitment to worker development to lure job applicants. Employer job postings for positions that do not require four-year degrees included the term “career advancement” 35% more often from March through July than in the same span two years ago, according to Emsi Burning Glass, a labor market analytics firm. “Training” was mentioned 32% more often.

The new emphasis, if lasting and widespread, would be a significant change in corporate behavior. Companies have often regarded workers — except those at the top — as a cost to be cut instead of an asset that would become increasingly valuable with investment. Training programs were trimmed and career ladders lowered.

How large the opportunity will be for the striving workers, experts say, may depend on overhauling the hiring and promotion practices of corporate America.