I think there is something sort of foolish about the fact that across the board employees are basically not allowed to mention real numbers regarding how much they make or even things like the industry average pay.<p>Read these threads and you almost never hear anyone mention real numbers because they are terrified of either being fired or having their peers realize what a good/bad deal they've made.<p>Yet, in a lot of public institutions like Universities, public schools, salaries are a lot more transparent.<p>Companies probably don't want people to know what other people make because it gives the individual leverage to negotiate. We as developers are terrible at negotiating and don't want to admit it.<p>Anecdotally, in Lincoln, NE I've seen developers paid anywhere from $25,000 to $120,000, but most range in the $35,000 - 65,000 range. I believe most devs at UNL or the state of NE fall between 45k and 65k, but some can be a good bit higher.<p>What gets me is if a dev in the midwest who would normally get paid $60,000 or so, how much should they get paid as a remote worker for a startup in SF? In SF I assume a dev costs $120,000 or more, so if you were being hired there what is the right number to ask for?<p>In a truly remote work environment, does it really make sense to pay dramatically less or more just because of where someone lives? Is someone's relative value decided by their location or by their skills and abilities?