"Knowing what the going rate is is an important base for understanding the direction in which your career will develop, and what you should expect in remunerati

"Knowing what the going rate is is an important base for understanding the direction in which your career will develop, and what you should expect in remuneration as it develops. But, I feel it is foolish to go into that negotiation and say "salary averages say I should earn X, therefore, pay me X."" You should be delivering significantly more value than market rates! Market rates for your skill level should be a salary floor. Surely you can deliver far more value to your company than a random developer who walks in the door. I know I can, as a fairly average developer, easily outperform top developers because of all the internal knowledge, market knowledge, and customer knowledge I have built up over the years. If you aren't worth market rates in your area then you should consider changing jobs because your company is clearly getting you to do low value easily replaceable work.