[laumars]

I can’t speak for the country you work in but here in the U.K. not every company has salary ranges and even those that do, a great many will try to negotiate salaries down rather than up (salaries are a businesses largest expense after all). Thus having a lower published salary gives you less bargaining power to negotiate a higher starting salary.

This isn’t a universal problem even in the U.K. but just an illustration of how the GPs point isn’t as inaccurate as you claim.