If you know what your coworkers make, you have a better idea what you can negotiate up to than if you didn't. That's true even if you can't go into a discussion and name names and dollar amounts that you know.
If a coworker told me their compensation, I would not reveal that in a discussion about my own pay. I hope that the reverse is also true. I think it's a mature and cool-headed position to have. Not everybody is mature and cool-headed though.
I have also heard the best way to get a raise is to move companies. I like my job though.
Would hate to work in the kind of environment where coworkers don't trust each other. At last big tech company, people willingly added their compensation to an internal spreadsheet.
And this goes back to the old Netflix presentation. “We are a team not a family”. The minute you think otherwise is the minute that you start doing stuff “for the good of the company” and putting the company before your own priorities.
If a coworker told me their compensation, I would not reveal that in a discussion about my own pay. I hope that the reverse is also true. I think it's a mature and cool-headed position to have. Not everybody is mature and cool-headed though.
I have also heard the best way to get a raise is to move companies. I like my job though.