A prospective employer could begin exploiting someone before they even get hired, such as by wasting their time with bullshit personality assessments, making them perform an unnecessary number of interviews, or having them complete "projects" that will really be used/reverse engineered to do away with the need for an employee to begin with (by resolving an immediate problem for the company). They might also, in the quest to pay as little as they can possibly get away with, respond to any divulged information about previous/current compensation by trying to pay approximately the same amount, not taking into account what is livable, fair, or suited to a person's individual merit (once the other two are taken care of, that is).
If certain employers were not going to mishandle that information, it would not be dangerous to volunteer it during an interview process. It is not the interviewee's fault regardless if someone tries to exploit them, as they are not at fault for someone else's greed or predatory actions. Still, there are ways to be more careful or strategic in answering questions like "What are your salary expectations?" You do not have to give any details about how other jobs have paid, including any present position, and you do not have to give a vague or over-inflated answer either.
Telling a potential new employer one's previous or current wages/salary is more probably going to be misinterpreted as an invitation to pay no better than that, or minimally better at most. Instead, saying something like "Other opportunities in the industry that I am considering pay (insert amount)" both brings up how the company needs to be competitive in the broader market to win over workers, and it gently yet firmly points out that employers are very expendable for a worker with options.
Employers could, if they decided to, offer livable or better compensation from the start without any sort of pressure from other people. This is unlikely to happen, though.
There are also other factors to consider in negotiating starting compensation, including how the company might try to haggle down whatever is proposed by the interviewee. In that case, asking for a somewhat higher than desired or realistic amount could give you more room for the employer to "talk you down" and make it seem to themselves like they are saving money, when they might really be retreating to the exact number you really have in mind. This way, the employee can have much more adjustment room to spare than they would if they directly gave the real compensation amount they hope for (or need!) and then having the employer try to negotiate their way to a smaller wage/salary.
There are certainly ways to protect yourself from and even manipulate employers who are hoping to extract as much work and output from a new hire for the smallest compensation level possible. While workplace exploitation might be inescapable for people surrounded only by work opportunities tied to terrible employers, one can always just decline an offer or walk out of an interview if an employer will not at least limit their exploitative habits. For those with no other choice besides starvation or who are willing to endure the stupidity, they still do not have to make it easy for the company to underpay and can even navigate interviews or following conversations so precisely that they wind up financially safe.
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