it cant be negotiated fairly. negotiating works for people who are "in the know" and have been in the industry for years such as yourself. everyone else gets shit end of the stick, because the company is negotiation from position of power with much more knowledge.
thats why some governments mandate minimum salary based on collective agreement or make it a law to provide salary range (for example Austria)
What does it mean to be negotiated “fairly”? If you don’t like the rate, you come with a counter proposal, for which ideally you have leverage. The leverage is another job offer you found. If you don’t have leverage, you could negotiate a few other ways but they’re less effective. In the end, if you feel you can’t get a competing offer and you can’t wait, essentially you have to accept the terms, but also you can continue the search, and quit when you find something better. This is why companies don’t like to lowball you - they don’t want you to come in with one foot out the door. So one of those “less effective” ways is to explain honestly how their offer might not be sufficient for you to be able to focus on your work without worrying about rent and food. It’s in the best interest of both of you for you to focus on work.
I guess this is a debate as old as time "invisible hand" vs "socialism". I understand both sides of the argument, but think it makes sense to have a bit of government oversight or workers initiatives here to make sure people are not getting shafted.
Upd: I actually checked, there are 6 (six) unicorns in Austria. But no one ever heard of them and you never figure out what are they doing.
And I dont mean this as an insult but factually you wont see crap smeared on sidewalks and armies of dope fiends walking around in the cities of Austria.
It seems like profit at the expense of everything else, morals included and sustainable growth are two different concepts.
So yes, Austria (country of 10 million) does not have many unicorn companies, but the quality of life for an average person is miles removed from that of an average person in the US, the country with most unicorns in the world?
So Austria will be forced to open floodgates to gastarbaiters from all over the world. And with the aforementioned cost of life, they will have their portion of slums with junkies and crap-smeared sidewalks.