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Comment by paulgb | Hacker News Reader

The incentive against posting a huge range like $50-500k is that it anchors the range a candidate expects. If you post that range and then offer $100k to a qualified candidate, they will probably balk, so if that’s closer to the desired salary band you have an incentive just to say so.

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Posting a large, unreal range will also cause headaches internally with your existing employees. Skip all the hassle and just use a valid range.

Because of the laws getting passed in other states, many postings already have ranges and they have looked reasonable to me.

I think the largest range I've seen that wasn't very obviously from some resume harvester or z-tier recruiting firm was $30-40k between the lowest and highest, and it didn't seem to grow all that much as the upper band number increased (e.g. I distinctly remember one that said $180-200k). These $50-500k ranges simply don't happen in reality.

I've seen plenty that go $100-350k, especially when it looks like a company is hiring a few people... Useless to a candidate, but not dodgy or malicious.

Not useless to a candidate, since they know they will earn at least $100k. This is a very useful signal to the labor market as a whole.

Not useless at all. Every candidate will start with the expectation that it will be explained why they did not hit the maximum of the range. They also know the minimum.

Take a look at Netflix, here's one at random but I believe they're all like this:

https://jobs.netflix.com/jobs/294103648

"The overall market range for roles in this area of Netflix is typically $180,000 - $900,000."

It's even easier than that. Just post multiple ads. Give them different titles if you want.

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