[r_smart]

I'm wondering if there's a (perhaps unintentional) effect of anchoring people's expectations low prior to getting to negotiations. That coupled with SOs reputation in the industry, which might motivate people to join anyway, could be giving them a major cost cutting edge in salaries. As soon as a person sees this transparency I suspect they are going to base their expectations around that as well as perceive the salary negotiations as less elastic than if it was kept secret.