Also, because corporate culture dictates the rules, sharing salary information is a fire-able offense sometimes subject to legal fines and breach of contract and/or NDA lawsuits in many (most?) US states. That information is intentionally only ever whispered among "connections", because that is what companies want for "better", more merciless control of the labor market.

This is awful. Do not work for companies that do that. They are looking for ways to take advantage of their employees and underpay them. Choose an honest employer that respects their employees instead.

I can't really disagree with this, but am left in conflict:

Information should be free, but shouldn't companies be free to

a) negotiate in their own best interested

b) use NDAs?

Almost every company that hires software developers are corporations or another limited-liability structure, such as an LLC. These entities exist at the sufferance of the society that grants that charter. They have no natural rights of any kind and they are granted the opportunity to exist so long as they provide benefits to the society granting that charter.

So you're asking what is, to me, the wrong question. To me, a more valuable question to community, society, and humanity is "why are we not putting them in a hammerlock and demanding decency?". Like--is there economic benefit to hiding this stuff from workers? Or is there greater economic benefit to at least some significant level of transparency with applicants and with workers after they're hired?

My guess is that that transparency is of significant social, as well as economic, value.

> b) use NDAs?

Not for information that shouldn't be secret. You use NDAs for trade secrets, not for mere salary information.

why should they?

it all depends on the world you want to live in and who gets to be empowered.