But that raises the false positive rate of unqualified applicants that are only in it for the money. Given that such a programmer may have net negative producti

But that raises the false positive rate of unqualified applicants that are only in it for the money. Given that such a programmer may have net negative productivity, underpaying qualified developers migth even be beneficial for the employers, as they can be sure that the remaining pool of applicants will only contain persons with a qualification level commensurate with the offered wages (which can easily be filtered out) and people passionate about programming. They may loose some of the best that way, but they loose all of the duds, too. </cynic>