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What does the salary range on a job posting mean?

On this page
  1. What to do
  2. The evidence
  3. Belief checked
  4. Where sources disagree
  5. Common questions

The short answer. In the California and Colorado rules we read, a salary range on a job posting is the employer's estimate, not a promise. California's Labor Commissioner's Office calls it a good faith estimate of what the employer reasonably expects to pay upon hire. Colorado's labor division says an employer may ultimately pay more or less, as long as the range, when posted, was what it genuinely believed it would be willing to pay (in a notice the division describes as an official opinion rather than binding law).

In a 2024 Glassdoor analysis of 147,568 US job listings, the salaries full-time employees reported fell inside the posted range in 67% of listings, below it in 22% and above it in 11%. Over 60% of the salaries inside a range sat below its middle (the same 2024 Glassdoor analysis). Those are salaries employees reported, not offers, so the analysis does not measure where an offer to you will land.

What to do next (our advice)

  1. Read the range as an estimate of pay at hire, and ask what comes on top. California's Labor Commissioner's Office says pay beyond the salary or hourly wage does not have to be posted. New York's Department of Labor says the range should leave out bonuses, commissions and benefits. Colorado's labor division, Washington's Department of Labor & Industries (for employers with 15 or more employees) and Maryland's Department of Labor each say a posting must also describe benefits and other compensation, at least in general terms. So in those three states, check the posting itself first.

  2. Don't count on the middle. Of the reported salaries that fell inside a range, over 60% sat below its middle (the 2024 Glassdoor analysis, see below). Before you name your own number, ask what experience puts someone at the bottom, middle or top of this range.

  3. Judge a range's width against its field. The typical range spread about 17% from bottom to top, but software development ranges typically spread 35.3% (Indeed Hiring Lab's 2023 data). If a range looks unusually wide, ask what would place you in it. Applicants who chose positions with narrower salary ranges negotiated less assertively, were more satisfied with a midpoint offer, and asked for less money when they countered (Cornell ILR School research by Alice Lee, page read October 2026). Don't let a narrow range alone talk you into asking for less.

  4. Ask for the range if a California posting leaves it out. California's Labor Commissioner's Office says that, on reasonable request, an employer must give an applicant the pay scale for a position they are applying to, citing Labor Code section 432.3.

  5. When asked for your expectations, consider a modest range rather than one number, starting at your target. There was no relationship cost to asking for a salary range in Ames and Mason's experiments (as the Association for Psychological Science summarizes them). The most successful range offers typically stayed within 20% of one another, the same summary says. The summary also says a range offer can backfire when it is unreasonably high.

  6. A missing range is one clue about a posting, not proof of anything. Some postings still leave pay out, even in a state with a pay transparency law. The share of Colorado postings with salary information reached nearly 70% in the months after its law, enacted January 1, 2021, took effect (Arnold, Quach and Taska, a November 2025 paper for the National Bureau of Economic Research, or NBER). Indeed Hiring Lab put Colorado at 88% in September 2024.

    An April 2025 report titled "Ghost" Job Postings defines ghost postings as online postings for positions that do not exist or that employers are not planning to fill immediately. In one vendor's data, listings likely to be ghost postings were far more often missing a salary range (Remote Rocketship, page read October 2026). Remote Rocketship, a vendor, scored 512,744 live listings for ghost-job risk using each company's own hiring history. In that Remote Rocketship data, 92% of likely ghost listings published no salary range, against 52% of all other listings. The same vendor says the closest thing to a sure sign of a ghost listing it found is one that hides the salary and has stayed up longer than that company usually takes to hire.

  7. If a posting looks like it breaks your state's rule, take it to the state labor agency or an employment attorney rather than acting on a guess. In California, a person who claims a pay transparency violation harmed them has one year from learning of it to file a complaint with the Labor Commissioner's Office, the Office says. Colorado's labor division gives anyone who witnessed, suffered or was injured by a perceived violation the same one year. California's complaint instructions say civil penalties collected are payable to the state, not to the person filing. New York's Department of Labor says the law prohibits employers from retaliating against employees or applicants who request this information.

What the evidence says

Where actual pay lands

  • A Glassdoor analysis published in September 2024 matched 147,568 US job listings to salaries full-time employees reported at the same employer, city and job title, from January 2023 to July 2024. In that 2024 Glassdoor analysis, the pay employees reported was inside the posted range in 67% of listings, below it in 22% and above it in 11%.
  • Over 60% of the reported salaries inside a range sat below the range's median, its middle point (the same 2024 Glassdoor analysis). So actual pay would likely fall in the lower half, Glassdoor says.
  • Ranges were most accurate at large employers (the 2024 Glassdoor analysis). Ranges in five states that had pay transparency laws at the beginning of 2024 did not differ greatly in accuracy from ranges in other states, the same analysis found.
  • The Glassdoor match used employer, city and job title, and the page we read names no match on seniority. So a reported salary may come from someone more or less senior than the job you are looking at.

Gap: our checked sources don't measure where actual job offers land against the posted range.

What is a typical salary range on a job posting?

  • The typical spread between the low and high end of a posted pay range was about 17% (Indeed Hiring Lab, 2023 analysis).
  • Typical advertised ranges were widest in beauty and wellness (45.5%), insurance (44.7%) and software development (35.3%) (Indeed Hiring Lab data for April 2023).
  • Ranges widened most in higher-paying occupations such as pharmacy and medical information (Indeed Hiring Lab, 2023 analysis). In that 2023 Indeed Hiring Lab analysis, ranges were tighter than a year earlier for lower-wage in-person roles such as driving, childcare and food service.
  • Some New York companies posted ranges as wide as $50,000 to $180,000 or $140,000 to $450,000 (a 2024 Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis article).
  • New York's Department of Labor says a range so broad that an applicant can't understand the legitimate pay range is not in good faith. It also says a range with significant breadth must come with an explanation of why it is so broad.

What does the law say a posted salary range must be?

State and agency Who it covers What the agency says the range is What else the posting must say Where to complain
California: Labor Commissioner's Office, citing Labor Code section 432.3 (page read November 2026) Employers with 15 or more employees, for a position that may ever be filled in California, in person or remotely, as the Office reads it A good faith estimate of the salary or hourly wage range it reasonably expects to pay upon hire Pay and benefits beyond salary or hourly wage are not required The Office, within one year of learning of the violation, if you claim to be aggrieved
Colorado: Division of Labor Standards and Statistics, in a notice it calls an official opinion, not binding law (last updated May 29, 2024) Employers, public or private, with at least one person employed in Colorado The lowest to highest it actually believes it may offer for the job, with a top and a bottom A general description of other compensation such as bonuses, commissions or tips, and at least the nature of the benefits The Division, within one year of learning of a perceived violation that you witnessed, suffered or were injured by
New York: Department of Labor, on Labor Law section 194-B (page read November 2026) Businesses with 4 or more employees, for a job performed at least in part in New York or reporting to a supervisor, office or work site there, including remote positions The minimum and maximum it believes in good faith to be accurate when posted, not open-ended A job description, and a clear statement if the position is commission-based; other pay and benefits stay out of the range but may be listed separately The Division of Labor Standards, if you claim to have experienced a violation
Washington: Department of Labor & Industries (page read November 2026) Employers with 15 or more employees Should be the most reasonable and genuinely expected range at the time of posting, clear without open-ended phrases A general description of all benefits and of other compensation The Department investigates complaints from applicants and employees; any person may give the employer written notice, which then has 5 business days to correct the posting before enforcement or a civil action
Maryland: Department of Labor, which gives October 1, 2024 as the law's effective date (page read October 2026) Employers posting internally or externally; we hold no employer-size rule The minimum and maximum wage A general description of benefits and any other compensation elements We did not read a complaint route

Gap: we read posting rules only for California, Colorado, New York, Washington and Maryland, and found no official count of states with such a law. For any other state, ask its labor department whether a rule applies and what a posted range must mean.

How often postings show pay

  • 57.8% of US job postings on Indeed listed some pay information in September 2024, up from 52.2% in September 2023 (Indeed Hiring Lab).
  • In September 2024, the share of postings with employer-provided salaries was 98% in New York, 90% in Washington and 88% in Colorado, each a state with a pay transparency law (Indeed Hiring Lab).

No. Labor agencies in California, Colorado, New York and Washington each describe the range as what the employer expects or believes, in good faith or genuinely, that it may pay. Pay can land outside it.

Reported pay fell outside the posted range in 33% of matched listings, 22% below plus 11% above (the 2024 Glassdoor analysis). Colorado's labor division says an employer may ultimately pay more or less than a posted range, as long as the range, when posted, was what the employer genuinely believed it would be willing to pay for the job (in a notice the division describes as an official opinion rather than binding law). New York's Department of Labor says that if an application exceeds the qualifications a good faith range was based on, it is still in good faith to offer that candidate a higher salary than the one posted.

Where sources disagree

  • Does pay transparency raise or lower pay? Wages rose 1.3% to 3.6% across three datasets after state laws required pay in job postings (Arnold, Quach and Taska's November 2025 NBER paper). US state laws protecting workers' right to ask coworkers about pay lowered wages by about 2% overall (a 2022 NBER paper by Cullen and Pakzad-Hurson). In that 2022 paper, the effects were muted where workers have low individual bargaining power, meaning little power to negotiate their own pay. The paper predicted muted effects in settings such as a collective bargaining agreement or markets with posted wages. The two may not conflict: one studies laws on job postings, the other laws on asking coworkers about their pay.

Questions people also ask

What is a salary range for a job example?

In Indeed Hiring Lab's 2023 analysis, the typical posted range spread about 17% from bottom to top, so a range starting at $50,000 would typically top out near $58,500.

What is your salary requirement for this position?

Consider a modest range that starts at your target rather than one number. In experiments on bargaining over catering, a new car or a starting salary, a modest range such as $50,000 to $54,000 secured better offers than a single number (Daniel Ames and Malia Mason, as summarized by the Association for Psychological Science). The most successful form started at the desired figure, such as $70,000 to $75,000 for a $70,000 target, in the same experiments as the Association for Psychological Science summarized them. California's Labor Commissioner's Office says an employer generally cannot seek your salary history, meaning what you were paid before. Nothing in the statute stops it asking your salary expectation, the Office says.

Can a job pay more than the posted range?

Yes, by the rules and data we read. Colorado's labor division says an employer may ultimately pay more or less than a posted range, as long as the range, when posted, was what the employer genuinely believed it would be willing to pay for the job (in a notice it describes as an official opinion rather than binding law). New York's Department of Labor says that if an application exceeds the qualifications a good faith range was based on, it is still in good faith to offer that candidate a higher salary than the one posted. Reported pay was above the posted range in 11% of listings (a 2024 Glassdoor analysis of 147,568 US job listings matched to salaries full-time employees reported).

Gap: our checked sources don't measure whether asking for more than the top of a posted range works, or how often it is granted.

Do employers have to post a salary range?

Whether an employer has to post a salary range depends on the state and, in some states, on the employer's size. The agencies in California and Washington say the rule starts at 15 employees, and New York's Department of Labor says 4. Colorado's labor division says the law covers an employer with at least one person employed in Colorado. Maryland's Department of Labor says its law requires the pay range in an internal or external job posting.

Gap: for another state, ask its labor department; we hold no official count of states with such a law.

How we checked this: this page is the output of a rigorous research pipeline run with AI tools: every factual sentence rests on a finding checked against the source's own words, and a person approved the page before it went up. How we check our facts. Updated November 12, 2026. This page is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice.

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