When I hire a plumber I don't ask "What did you charge the last guy to install a toilet". Or even better, the plumber doesn't ask " What did you pay the last plumber to install a toilet for you"?
You clearly have never owned a business or hired an employee. If I'm hiring a manager, and 2 applicants respond... one who has no experience, and one who has a long record of exceptional growth and budgets... and you expect me to make the same offer to each? And do fail to do so means that I must lose the better potential hire, because you're terrified of freedom and capitalism? No thanks. I'll trust employers long before I'll trust idiots like you who are eager to have government control business.
I'm typically hiring at a specific GS level. The GS pay schedule is a matter of public law. If the prospective employee wants to make a counteroffer based on the fact that they earn more with their current employer, then I absolutely have to be able to verify that claim.
When I hire a plumber I don't ask "What did you charge the last guy to install a toilet". Or even better, the plumber doesn't ask " What did you pay the last plumber to install a toilet for you"?
So, you never shop around? You never ask what various plumbers will charge? You just pay the first plumber who answers the phone and agrees to show up whatever he asks? You have never negotiated a price on anything? That is not very wise money management.