Exactly. I find it incredible that there are so many comments defending shady behind-closed-doors negotiations. Maybe a lot of the HN demographic are the type of people who benefit from this but for everyone getting a sweet deal there's someone else getting paid less. This is a step in the right direction, if you're actually worth so much more you can prove it and work your way up. No one should get a high salary off the bat just because they were able to impress the bro from HR during the interview. Companies should be competing for talent on an open market. They don't tell you salaries upfront because they want to pay you as little as they can get away with.

At all jobs I worked in my life I got paid more than most coworkers who were often even more dedicated to their jobs than me. At one company, the less I cared about being productive and the more I complained, the more leeway and compensation they gave me. It was like in Office Space.

Not that I refuse free money when they hand it to me, but that's obviously an unfair system. It's not a smart policy from the shareholder's perspective either, this is simply bad management and leads to lots of employees feeling treated unfairly.