I've gone back and forth on this so much. At the end of the day, any top-down rule-based system is going to have the same problem. I've been at companies that h

I've gone back and forth on this so much. At the end of the day, any top-down rule-based system is going to have the same problem. I've been at companies that have extremely strict, transparent rules for salaries with the explicit goal to reduce ambiguity and eliminate bias. To its credit, it was extremely transparent and impossible to game. The result? people with the same duties got paid VASTLY different salaries. I'd imagine the result here is that people with vastly different competencies and activities get paid the same (although, I'd imagine it takes the negotiation aspect of that away). At the end of the day, I believe, we should just not interfere with the market - let market participants bargain and negotiate with each other until agreement is reached. On a side note, has anyone ever had a job that fits into a job description? All of my jobs where the description might be as simple as "Software Engineer", whether at startups, govt affiliated research centers, or basic mid-size companies have been so idiosyncratic and varied. I guess this is a long way of saying that even if two people have the same job title, they might be doing vastly different work, and far outside the bound of the specific JD.