Generally, looking at the margin better predicts real world behavior. If you add one employee, how much extra revenue would you expect to gain? A reasonable sal

Generally, looking at the margin better predicts real world behavior. If you add one employee, how much extra revenue would you expect to gain? A reasonable salary = (extra revenue - HR/overhead expenses - the minimum profit the company needs to justify the trouble of adding one employee). If the last term was zero, then there would be no reason for the company to exist, and so it wouldn't exist and neither would the job. But in reality, hiring managers are probably setting this internal rate on what the job market is showing along with how badly they need to fill a position in their particular case.