[paulddraper]

This is precisely letting the markets figuring it out.

Those who offer at most 10% increase when a person's value is 50% higher will find themselves missing the good employees and ultimately, failing.

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An example:

How much do I offer for this house? I have have no friggin' clue. But I can look at previous sale prices to get an rough idea. Naturally, I if trust my decision to that 100%, I'll risk making a poor decision. But the previous sales are a piece of information about the market that I ought not ignore.

[nkurz]

> How much do I offer for this house?

I like the example, but wouldn't it be more parallel to ask "How much have you offered for other houses?" or "How much did your previous house sell for?". The seller would love to know that you are capable of offering more, but you are (properly?) reluctant to give this information.

> But the previous sales are a piece of information about the market that I ought not ignore.

I don't think there is any dispute that this is valuable information to the person doing the hiring. The question is whether it is fair to the person being hired to be asked this question.

Despite the theoretical disadvantage to the business, the current result seems to be that those who are historically disadvantaged will remain disadvantaged, while those who started out with an advantage will be disproportionally rewarded.

[paulddraper]

Your proposed parallel is backwards. The house is for sale to the buyer; the employee's time and skills are for sale to the employer.

So those question would be more like "How much do you pay other employees?" or "How much have you offered other candidates?"

You can ask those questions. Some employers are upfront, even posting salary ranges in the job ad itself. Other employers will decline to share that information.

Either side can reveal as much or as little information about their employment history as they choose. Curtailing freedoms is a heavy-handed act, despite the theoretical advantage to candidates.

[vivekpreddy]

Exactly. Good companies understand the value of great employees and I've found these tactics are for companies that penny-pinch and can't/won't budge. No better way to lose out on great talent that to only offer 10% more when other companies realize the value they're getting and offer significantly more.