The main reason for public salaries for gov employees/law makers/etc. is that they are payed through taxes, employees of other companies (unless they do contract work for gov most of the time) are not.

Probably. My point was that a) it's not a big deal, nobody really cares and b) that public salaries are great for employees who want to negotiate. Confidential salaries are mainly a tool for employers to keep employees in the dark.