>> My cynical self is thinking ...
>> Young = Less experience in negotiating = lower wage
Your compensation formula is completely void of the value someone can bring to the table. Young = less experienced, period. In negotiation, sure, but also in the on-the-job skills/experience/maturity. So of course they make less.
If you're a kid out of college competing with thousands of equally green kids, what would be your negotiating leverage? If you are someone 20 years in the industry with unique and proven experience, you can negotiate because you have something to negotiate with - there isn't another you.
I think you're right, but I think it's also true that plenty of companies either can't spot value or don't really care.
It's important to remember that a lot of execs get measured not by results, but by the resources they control. I've done contract work on projects that I could have built for 10% of the total budget. But nobody cared, because actual results were like the 4th priority, with the top three being 1) make the blowhard in charge look good, 2) make the project look big and important, and 3) provide a dramatic finish with 80-hour-weeks so said blowhard could look like he was managing very hard.
So it's no surprise that plenty of companies want cheap bodies more than they want the value of experience. And that's before we even get to the companies whose whole business model is based on hiring a lot of newbs and renting them out as highly competent bright sparks (coughaccenturecough).
Your compensation formula is completely void of the value someone can bring to the table. Young = less experienced, period. In negotiation, sure, but also in the on-the-job skills/experience/maturity. So of course they make less.
If you're a kid out of college competing with thousands of equally green kids, what would be your negotiating leverage? If you are someone 20 years in the industry with unique and proven experience, you can negotiate because you have something to negotiate with - there isn't another you.