Salary is always going to be confused world. People can often earn more as a graduate than a senior by moving to another company or country. Within an org it is hard to measure everyone's true contribution. People's salaries may reflect the job market when they joined. So someone who joined recently gets paid more for a more junior position than someone who has been at the company for years. The company needs to keep salaries secret to avoid people getting annoyed at this! Companies are now also completing for staff not only with other companies, but with investors! If someone is capable, they could go off and start their own thing too. They are also competing with FU money that people have built up. The desire to control this with titles and bands makes me laugh. Obviously big companies need to do this though.
