I never understood the kind of culture where salaries are secret. How good is that? In academia you know exactly how much everybody earns (it's determined by your tenure status) and nobody makes a fuss about it.
I've also found that the "taboo" against discussing salaries is a very weak taboo. If you make the first move, and talk about your salary, many people will relax and reciprocate.
It's only a taboo to the extent that other people are vaguely worried that it might be. :-)
Turns out you answered your own question in the sentence after you asked it.
You don't ever want your pay tied to seniority. You want it based on the value you can deliver. That way, you with your 10 years of experience and proven ability to ship good products get to make twice as much as Senior Dev John with 10 years experience maintaining the internal CRUD app.
And then you have a company that wants to keep salaries secret, so they don't have to keep hiring a new person to maintain their internal CRUD app every every 6 months.
I’m pretty sure that there are enough people who would be content with such a simple job of maintaining CRUD app. They get less salary, yes, but also they’ll have much less stress, and can focus their energy on other things.
