That’s not at all the case. Five of us recently moved internally via a remapping and they gave us pay rises. I negotiated 15% more than the initial offer, everyone else took the initial offer. Roughly same ability.

Indeed the only reason I could do this was because the new salary ranges were shown thanks to pay transparency.

> You're definitely more confident in negotiating and counter-offering if you have 10x skill

Not if high performers underrate their skill, and under-performers overestimate their skill, both of which studies suggest is true.

Just because you may have leverage does not mean that you're wise enough in negotiation skills to use that leverage effectively.