I agree with you. "You want to employer to feel that they have someone who is being paid at a level that reflects the employees skills and experience and is br

I agree with you. "You want to employer to feel that they have someone who is being paid at a level that reflects the employees skills and experience and is broadly consistent with other employees at a similar level." No, you don't want the employer feels there is equality in salaries. If the employer cared about that it wouldn't have hired on a high salary in the first place. And any "feeling" by the employer is literally irrelevant, as by their own standards, the moment they accept to hire you at a higher salary. Now, it is different regarding colleagues. But your argument that it is in the employee best interest to not push for a higher salary, is nonsense. BTW, I am not a developer or engineer, I am a marketing person and no one in my line of work would ever consider this. This sounds a lot like companies that hire tech people trying to rationalize why developers should not earn that much with anything that is not just economical market balance.