Discussing salary is only taboo because your employers make it taboo. By keeping your salaries a secret, they get more leverage in negotiations, can afford to g

Discussing salary is only taboo because your employers make it taboo. By keeping your salaries a secret, they get more leverage in negotiations, can afford to give you much smaller raises, and have a general upper hand. Keeping salaries secret is nothing more than ensuring you stay on the bottom of the society.* Your employer, however, is happy to keep all that money. This is why we need unions. Because as a single person, you have absolutely zero leverage over your employer. Sadly, fear on each side is what makes the agreement work, properly. * Applies more as you go down the chain of responsibility, or salary. Needless to say, software developers are not doing that badly in the grand scheme of things.