You're absolutely wrong. You're negotiating from a position of weaker information. You have no idea what the other engineers are being paid, all you know is h

You're absolutely wrong. You're negotiating from a position of weaker information. You have no idea what the other engineers are being paid, all you know is how much you're being paid, and what you would like to be paid. Meanwhile the recruiter/hiring manager knows exactly how much they are paying all the other engineers. You are now tasked with trying to get as fair/high a salary as possible, without knowing what their threshold is for simply no longer continuing the negotiations, because as you said "the price is just way too high". By hearing the other side first, you can then gauge whether or not your desired salary is acceptable, or you can try to negotiate up.