My understanding is that the pay schedules are designed to slow down your raises when you cross the median pay for that band. When you get hired, you can negotiate for any position in that band.
Imagine a bell curve, the system is designed to try and keep everyone in the same role towards the middle of the bell curve. When you get hired, you just have to fit within the bell curve, not near the center. Changing companies lets you reset to somewhere else under the curve, though you may get smaller YoY raises.
If we had a tech workers guild, we could push for much more transparency in all this.
Imagine a bell curve, the system is designed to try and keep everyone in the same role towards the middle of the bell curve. When you get hired, you just have to fit within the bell curve, not near the center. Changing companies lets you reset to somewhere else under the curve, though you may get smaller YoY raises.
If we had a tech workers guild, we could push for much more transparency in all this.