Ask HN: Are the salary ranges on Colorado job postings low? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Are the salary ranges on Colorado job postings low?

A recent Colorado law requires companies in Colorado to post salary ranges on job ads. I've been reading postings similar to my current job for several weeks and they all seem lower than what I'm currently at. Are companies listing salaries lower than they are willing to actually pay? Or am I just making an above market salary?

I'm curious to hear if anyone else is watching the salary ranges and to hear their opinions on them. Does anyone have stories of applying for jobs in Colorado and negotiating their salary above the posted range?

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Hiring manager in CO here, watching salary ranges that get posted and having discussed it with more informed people on the HR side. Here's what I've been seeing:

* Yes, plenty of companies posting a lower range than they are willing to pay. Some are explicitly saying that's the starting range, others leave it implicit.

* Some but not many companies in technical compliance, but failing to meet the spirit of the law. Ex: posting a range of $50-150k.

* Lots of companies are still not posting the salary range. Many of these are out-of-state companies posting remote positions, but labeling them as Denver or Boulder to attract Colorado talent.

Thank you for your insight. I wondered if posting a low salary range was a negotiating tactic by HR. My confusion is that this will probably discourage good applicants from applying, right? Or are there folks confident enough to walk in the room and ask for $30k over the posted range?

My hunch is that some companies are posting lower ranges because current employees can also see the posted range.

But like housing prices in CO, I suspect another factor is that prices are increasing rapidly so nobody has a great handle on market value. So a company might post a range they believe to be true, but be open to bidding higher pending other offers or concerns about not landing the candidate.

Those ranges may reflect actual salaries. You don’t realize how much companies screw over people.

Check out levels.fyi. Good tool to explore regional differences.

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