All profit is based on exploitation. Surplus value is extracted in absolute and relative terms. Absolute surplus value is increasing the amount of time worked per worker. Relative surplus value is extracted by reducing wages or increasing productivity and intensity.
With that orientation explicitly stated, I work in tech and I find discussing salary extremely difficult. Recruiters and hiring managers ask: "What is your salary expectation?" I have no idea how to respond and because I am desperate for a job, respond with what my friends later tell me is "a low ball". It is a wild wild west, with ignorant HR people looking for buzzwords, unrealistic tech stacks, and a lot of bait and switch.
How to approach salary questions? Should I give them a number first? My neoliberal friends tell me "how much value you think you generate", and I respond "enough so I don't have to work anymore".
I usually ask them what their range is for the position. Sometimes they'll fuck up and tell me. Pretty sure I low balled myself for a job last week though. I told them a range and they said the job miraculously pays right in the middle of it!
I fucking hate job interviews. I fucking hate recruiters. I fucking hate salary negotiations.
This has always done me right. Start with “is there a band for this position” and go from there.