[smsm42]

You are saying it like salary is the sole decision of the company - they and only they decide what to reward and what not to reward. Thus, you pre-accepted the premise there can be no negotiation - no wonder with this pre-accepted premise you find nothing wrong with it! In fact, however, the size of the reward is a product of mutual agreement. So the right thing to ask is - why would the engineer want more money? What getting more money does with engineering skill? Maybe nothing, maybe something - but if you hate getting paid, feel free not to negotiate. If, however, you still have some uses for that root of all evil called money, then feel free to negotiate and take at least part of the control for your pay to yourself.

The whole premise that people - women or men - are not to participate in determining their future with the company, at least in the compensation aspect, but only can be externally evaluated, given something and have no further input in the process but either blindly accept whatever they are given or hit the road - sounds kind of demeaning to me. Negotiation is part of what mature adults do to arrive to commonly acceptable goal. Saying "here's your allowance and not a dime more" is how a parent communicates to a child. Not an equal standing.