A few years ago the compensation line on a posting was blank and you found out the number in week four. Now, in roughly a dozen states plus Washington, D.C., employers have to publish a range — and candidates have gone from having no information to having information they mostly misread. The two common mistakes: treating the top of the range as your offer, and treating the bottom as an insult. It's neither. It's a band, and where you land in it is mostly decided before you ever talk money.
What the range legally has to be
In states with posting requirements, the range isn't decorative. California's Labor Code defines the pay scale an employer must publish as "the salary or hourly wage range the employer reasonably expects to pay for a position" — not an aspiration, not a recruiting lure. Other states word it differently but land in the same place.
That's useful to you: the posted band is the employer's own statement of what they'll pay, and a company that offers well below its published floor has something to explain. What it does not mean is that the top of the band is available to every applicant.
Why the range is so wide
A $120,000–$185,000 posting isn't the company being cagey. Wide bands usually come from one of three ordinary causes:
- The req spans two levels. Many postings are written to catch a strong mid-level candidate or a light senior one. The floor is the first, the ceiling is the second.
- Geography. A remote role priced for both New York and Omaha carries both numbers in one band.
- The band is the whole level. Some companies publish the full range for the level, including where someone sits after three years of raises — not just what a new hire gets.
"Where you land in the band is a function of the scope you can demonstrably run, not how well you negotiate on the last call."
Read the rest of the posting to find your spot
The posting usually tells you which of the three you're looking at, if you read the requirements alongside the number. A req saying "4–9 years" is spanning levels. One that names a team size or budget you'd own is telling you what the ceiling is being paid for. If the responsibilities describe work a level above what you've done, the honest read is that you're a candidate for the lower half of that band — still worth applying for, just with accurate expectations.
This matters most for how you spend your time. A band whose midpoint is below your current comp is a role you can deprioritize in ten seconds instead of four interviews. That's the real value of transparency: it's a filter you can use before you invest, not just a negotiating input at the end.
When there's no range at all
Postings outside those states, and plenty inside them, still arrive with nothing. Asking is normal, and the recruiter screen is the moment — before you've spent hours on the process, not after.
A recruiter who answers straight is telling you something good about the process. One who won't answer at any point is telling you something too.
When they ask what you're looking for
If a range is posted and your experience matches the scope described, anchor to it honestly: name the part of the published band your experience supports, and say why. You never need a competing offer that doesn't exist — an invented one is the fastest way to lose a real one.
You also generally don't have to answer the other question. About twenty states bar employers from asking what you currently earn, and even where it's legal, "I'd rather anchor to the range for this role and what I'd be responsible for" is a complete, professional answer. If you get to an offer, our salary negotiation guide covers the counter itself.
Save the range with the role
Ranges are most useful in aggregate. Log the posted band on every role you save — after fifteen or twenty, the pattern tells you what no single posting can: whether you're aiming at a level below where your experience sits, whether one target industry pays materially less than another, or whether the roles you're most excited about are ones you can't afford to take.
Keep it on the card in your job tracker next to the posting itself, since listings get edited and taken down. The range you applied against is worth having in writing when the offer conversation happens six weeks later.
Can a company offer below the posted salary range?
In states with posting laws the published range is supposed to be what the employer reasonably expects to pay, so an offer below the floor is fair to question directly. Ask what changed. Sometimes they slotted you at a lower level than the req described — a real conversation worth having before you accept or decline.
Should I apply if the range is below what I need?
Usually not, unless something else about the role genuinely offsets it. A band's midpoint is a reasonable guess at the offer, and hoping to be the exception at the very top is a poor use of the hours a full application takes. Spend them on roles whose midpoint already works.
Do I have to tell them my current salary?
About twenty states prohibit employers from asking. Where it's allowed, you're still not obligated to volunteer it — redirecting to your expectations for this role is normal and recruiters hear it constantly. What you should never do is state a number that isn't true.
Why do some postings show a huge range like $90k–$200k?
Most often the req covers more than one level, or one posting is being used across several locations with different pay. It can also mean the role is loosely defined. Ask on the screening call which level they're hiring at and what the range is for that level specifically.
A posted range is the one piece of hard information a listing gives you before you spend anything. Read it as a band tied to a level, check the requirements to see where in it you actually sit, and let it decide which applications get your best effort. Keep every range on one board and you'll stop guessing what the market pays you — you'll have it written down.