When I hire people I look at the budget and what is the market rate on the job. Recently I have two openings and hire two people doing the same job. Both have different expected salary. As both are doing the same job its fair I pay the same amount. Hence person A actually gets about 10% more than his expected salary even though his experience is slightly more than person B.

Nope I did not. But I think our HR did due to company policy (not that I agree). Our HR do not have a target for salary hence they practically agree to what we suggest.

Do have to add that HR do advice but in the end we have the final say. Also because my company is expanding like crazy. I think once this slow down then most probably rules will tighten. This is normal actually cause if you are new and expanding, you need to pay top dollar to get talent.