Of course, but that is just a badly designed pay scale. Most companies intentionally avoid salary transparency because it makes them pay more than they need to

Of course, but that is just a badly designed pay scale. Most companies intentionally avoid salary transparency because it makes them pay more than they need to in some situations and get outbid in other situations. Even companies that do have transparent pay scales usually build some wiggle room into the scale, e.g. you are hired as a Senior Developer instead of a Developer or a Lead Developer instead of Senior or you get a higher experience modifier or something like that.