People in software generally suck at negotiation. And, salary transparency just reduces overall salaries and increases profit for the company. Why? because a s

People in software generally suck at negotiation. And, salary transparency just reduces overall salaries and increases profit for the company. Why? because a software developer will say, 'Wow, I can get paid that much for doing something that I love? Sure!', and they'll take whatever they're given. But, ask yourself, do you think the person in sales does the same thing? The person in finance or marketing? Look, you don't need to be a world-class developer to make $200k / year. You just have to be 1% better than the developer making $190k / year. As a baseline, a typical services / contracting company will bill a senior developer at $190 / hour. The math is straight-forward. This works for product companies, as well. You and your 20-person engineering team build a product that ends up being worth $100M? (completely realistic, btw) Yeah, even at paying $200k / year, the company and investors are making out. It's funny, actually. For all of the software people that I know who are self-described libertarians, when it comes to their salary they are willing to lean socialist.