I've always been a fan of daylight on salaries. People get uncomfortable thinking about their worth in relation to others, but having it exposed means two things: 1) you can easily figure out who you should be more like and 2) it prevents bullshit from being the cause of someone receiving high pay. If I'm going in for a salary negotiation and I ask my boss why so-and-so makes $50k more a year than I do, he or she better have a damn good explanation for it.

The problem at this point is societal. It's been taboo for so long that people still harbor deep discomfort with it. Maybe they believe they don't deserve the pay they're getting so they wish for it to be quieted. If that's the case, then fuck those people.