Not agreeing or disagreeing but I don't think he meant what do you need to survive but after he goes on to say that it means "what do you need to be happy with this job".

Salary is a very tricky thing. Yes, there are locations that pay a Jr. developer $100k or more. My bias is showing in that I don't live on one of those areas.

That still does not change how I handle salaries. However, I left out a critical part.

Yes, I like hiring remote developers. Yes, I like paying each developer what they feel they are worth so that they are comfortable with the job and not always looking for the next thing.

HOWEVER, before I start looking for a developer to hire I have to assess what the position is worth to the company. Regardless of geographic norms for the developer, if the position of Jr. is not worth $100k to the company, then I will dismiss the candidate because others will provide similar value and within my range.

I want everyone to be comfortable with the salary being paid. That includes the developer I am hiring, the company I am hiring them for, and myself. The person who will be held responsible for the decision.

To him a junior dev is not worth $100k, it doesn't matter what Glassdoor says.

The thing about not negotiating simply means that he asks you your number, and then makes a binary decision based on that number. As opposed to trying to get you to agree to a lower figure, your number is either acceptable to him or not. If so, hired; if not, not.

That link seems to be geolocation-specific. For me it returns salaries from 23 to 31k [1]

[1] https://imgur.com/cCq85nI

Which I think does add to my point - especially if you are a remote worker. The cost of living in a small suburbia town will be different than living in Silicon Valley.

I don't think he has to deal with remote workers - but automatically disqualifying someone based on how much they ask just rubs me the wrong way.