call.copse (5/19/2014)
Personally, whilst I may be a grumpy old sod, I do favour making friends with my fellow employees and getting to know people's salaries after a drink or two. Yes, it goes against terms, and I think an 'I'll show you mine if you show me yours' is the only approach. This means obviously trying to avoid such discussions with the type of person who will blab about the discussion. However such data is generally helpful when negotiating - and I would never say 'Oh, X gets Y so I should get Z' - simply to understand where you are standing and whether it seems reasonable with respect to your relative contribution.
On one occasion, the other DBA in the team left to become a contractor. Our job descriptions were identical, our skill sets very similar in terms of both range and experience. The vacancy for his job was advertised with a band that started at my salary and extended a further 10k, which was 6k higher than my supposed salary band. It took a lot of commentary/negotiation on my part to get another 2k on my salary at that point. The person they eventually recruited didn't have my skills/expertise. Needless to say, the whole episode informed my subsequent relationship with that company.