[robocat]

The key is that there is competition for the job. Your negotiation is limited by the negotiation price of other applicants.

If you are the single possible candidate for a job that is essential for the company, then you can use your monopoly power to get paid more than the “value” you bring.

If the company has an excess of candidates, they may be able to pay less than “CoL” (because CoL varies per applicant, and the minimum is someone in poverty not a standard engineer lifestyle).

I do agree with your statement as a generalisation. Although the maximum a company will pay is usually nowhere near the value you might bring (Apple average pay $150k, Apple average excess profit per employee $300k).

[nybble41]

> If you are the single possible candidate for a job that is essential for the company, then you can use your monopoly power to get paid more than the “value” you bring.

In that scenario your value to the company, together with all the other "essential" budget items, is the total value of the company. If you're somehow getting more than that then the company simply doesn't have the budget to pay for all the essentials and is consequently going bankrupt.