How to read the salary range in a job posting and guess where you will land

A salary range in a job posting is the most useful pay number you will see before your first interview, as long as you know what it is legally supposed to mean. This guide is for job seekers staring at a wide range and wondering where an offer will actually fall: how four key states define the range, why some ranges are huge, how to check one against public data, and how to use it when pay comes up.

What a posted range is supposed to represent

A posted range is the employer's estimate, made when the ad went up, of what it expects or is prepared to pay for that one job. It is not a promise, and it is not a list of what current staff earn.

Two details trip people up.

• It is usually base pay only. California's Labor Commissioner says bonuses, tips and other benefits do not have to be included in the posted pay scale. New York's labor department says the range should leave out commissions, bonuses, stock, overtime and benefits, which can be listed separately. Colorado and Washington require a general description of benefits and other pay, such as bonuses or commissions, in the posting alongside the range.
• It may be a full salary band or a narrower hiring range. A salary band is the whole span an employer pays for a role, from a brand-new hire to someone who has been in the seat for years. A hiring range is the slice it expects to offer new people. Depending on the state and the employer, a posting can show either one.

That second point is why it helps to know which state's rules shaped the posting you are reading.

How state laws define the range: good faith and expected pay

The common thread is "good faith" at the time of posting. The wording around it is where the states differ, and it changes how much weight you can put on the numbers. Here is what the official texts say for four of the biggest pay transparency states. For the full list of states and cities with posting rules, see our pay trends coverage.

Sources: California Labor Code 432.3, as explained by the Labor Commissioner, Colorado's Posting, Screening, and Transparency (POST) Rule 11.1.2, New York Labor Law 194-b and Washington L&I guidance.

What the differences mean in practice

• California points most directly at new-hire pay. The words "upon hire" mean the range should reflect what the employer expects to pay the person it hires, not the top of a band that staff reach after years. The Labor Commissioner reads the posting rule as covering any job that could be filled in California, including remote roles.
• Colorado openly allows a wider span: the lowest to highest pay the employer "might" pay, "depending on the circumstances." Its rule also says an employer can end up paying more or less than the posted range, as long as the range was a reasonable good-faith estimate when it was posted. Expect ranges written with Colorado in mind to be broad.
• New York's labor department says a range so broad that applicants cannot tell what the employer will really pay is not in good faith, and that a very wide range needs an explanation. It also expects a separate range for each location and each seniority level, instead of one giant range covering all of them.
• Washington says the range should run from the lowest to the highest pay the employer set before posting, with no open-ended phrases like "and up" or "up to." Employers there may post a narrower hiring range if they do not plan to hire across the whole band.

Coverage details, such as how remote jobs, recruiters and small employers are treated, vary by state. If a posting seems to break the rules where you live, check the state labor agency's page rather than assuming.

Why some ranges are huge, and what that tells you

A wide range is not automatically a red flag. It is information, and it usually comes from one of four causes.

1. One posting, several levels. A single ad for "Analyst" might be open to junior, mid-level and senior candidates, so the range spans all three. New York expects separate ranges for different seniority levels in this situation, but other states are less specific.
2. Several locations or pay zones. National employers often pay differently by city. A remote posting may show one range stretching from the cheapest zone to the most expensive.
3. The full band, not the hiring range. Colorado's wording allows this. The top of a band is often where long-tenured high performers end up, not where new hires start.
4. Minimum compliance. Some employers post the widest range they can defend. That is exactly what California's "upon hire" wording and New York's guidance on overly broad ranges push back against.

A quick test you can do in ten seconds: divide the top of the range by the bottom. When the top is around double the bottom or more, assume the range is covering more than one level, location or band position, and plan to ask which. That is a rule of thumb, not a legal standard.

Cross-checking a company's range: other postings, OEWS and visa filings

One posting is one data point. Three quick checks will tell you whether the range is realistic and roughly where you fit.

Check 1: The same company's other postings

• Search the employer's careers page for the same job family at other levels, such as "Analyst," "Senior Analyst" and "Lead Analyst." Where the ranges overlap tells you where one level ends and the next begins.
• Look for the same title posted in different cities. If the New York version and the Denver version show different ranges, you have just learned the employer's location pay gap.
• Remote roles are useful here, because employers often post them with ranges to satisfy states like California and New York even when the job is not based there.
• Save screenshots. Postings come down, and ranges sometimes change after posting. New York's labor department says an employer can revise a range in good faith after learning more during hiring.

Check 2: BLS OEWS percentiles

The Bureau of Labor Statistics runs the Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) survey, which estimates pay for hundreds of occupations nationally, by state and by metro area. You can look up your occupation in the May 2025 OEWS occupation profiles, the newest release at the time of writing.

OEWS reports pay as percentiles. A percentile tells you what share of workers earn less than a given amount:

• The 10th percentile is the pay level that 10% of workers earn less than. Think of it as the low end, often entry-level or lower-paying employers.
• The median (50th percentile) is the middle: half of workers earn more and half earn less.
• The 90th percentile is the level that only the top 10% of workers earn more than.

For example, BLS reports that market research analysts had a median annual wage of $78,760 in May 2025. The lowest 10% earned less than $43,390 and the highest 10% earned more than $155,480. Pay also depends heavily on industry: the median was $102,670 for analysts in the information industry, according to the BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook.

Use OEWS to sanity-check, not to predict your offer. It covers everyone in the occupation, from new hires to veterans, so it is not a new-hire figure. Occupation categories are broad and job titles do not always map neatly onto them. And because it is published with a lag, a fast-moving field may have shifted since the survey.

Check 3: Visa filings

When US employers hire workers on certain visas, such as H-1B, they file paperwork with the Department of Labor that includes the job, the worksite and the wage. The Office of Foreign Labor Certification publishes this as downloadable disclosure data on its performance data page.

If the company files these, you can filter by employer name and job title to see wages it has stated for similar roles. Treat the results with care. The data only covers roles the company filled through these programs, which skew toward fields like tech, engineering and research. Filed wages can also be ranges themselves, and they are not proof of final pay. Still, if a company's filings for your title sit well above or below its posted range, that is worth noticing.

Where new hires usually start in a range, and why

Here is the honest part: no public data shows where in a posted range offers usually land. State laws require the range, not a report of what people were actually paid. Anything you read about a typical landing spot, including the guidance below, is a judgment call, not a rule.

What is reasonably well understood is how employers think about it. Many companies with formal pay structures treat the middle of a band as pay for someone fully capable in the role, and keep the top for people who have grown well beyond it. They also try to avoid paying a new hire more than current staff doing the same work, which tends to keep offers away from the top.

Your likely position depends on how you compare with what the job asks for:

Offers can also land outside a range. Colorado's rule allows the final pay to differ from the posted range if the range was a good-faith estimate. New York's labor department says an employer can offer more than the posted range to a candidate with higher qualifications than the range assumed, or after a company-wide pay increase.

Using the range in your first pay conversation

The range gives you a reason to talk about pay early without guessing. A few points before you do:

• You usually do not have to share your current salary. California, Colorado and Washington all bar employers from asking for your pay history. California's Labor Commissioner notes that employers may still ask what pay you expect.
• You can ask for more detail. In California, applicants can request the pay scale for a job they are applying to. In Washington, current employees offered a promotion or transfer can ask for the range of the new role.
• Know what the range leaves out. Ask about bonus, equity and benefits separately, since the posted figure is usually base pay only.

Scripts you can adapt:

• To find your spot: "Where in this range do you see this role landing for someone with my background?"
• To learn what kind of range it is: "Is the posted range the full band for this role, or the range you expect to hire into?"
• When the range is wide: "The range covers quite a span. Does it include more than one level? Which level are you hiring for?"
• When asked for your number: "Based on the posted range and my experience with [specific skill], I'm looking at the upper half of the range. I'm flexible depending on the full package."

If the recruiter gives a vague answer, that is fine. You have still signaled that you read the posting closely and expect a number inside it.

Example: decoding a wide range

This is a hypothetical example to show the method. The company, posting and candidate are invented.

You see a posting for a market research analyst at a mid-sized software company. The job is remote, reports to a New York office, and the top of the posted base pay range is a little more than double the bottom. The bottom of the range sits below the national median for the occupation. You have four years of experience and meet every listed requirement, plus one of the two "preferred" skills.

Step 1: Test the width. Because the top is more than double the bottom, the range is probably covering more than one level or location.

Step 2: Check other postings. On the company's careers page you find a "Senior Market Research Analyst" posting. Its range starts roughly two-thirds of the way up the analyst range and tops out at the same maximum. That suggests the upper part of the analyst range really belongs to senior hires, and the realistic span for you sits in the lower two-thirds.

Step 3: Compare with OEWS. The national median for market research analysts was $78,760 in May 2025, and $102,670 in the information industry, which includes many software publishers. In this example, the senior range happens to start close to that information-industry median.

Step 4: Place yourself. With four years' experience and most of the preferred skills, the "around the middle" row of the guidance table fits, but the middle of the full range is pulled up by the senior overlap. A reasonable working target is the middle of the non-senior portion, which here lands between the national median and the information-industry median, leaning toward the higher end because of your preferred skill.

Step 5: Ask. In the first recruiter call: "Where in this range do you see this role landing for someone with my background? I noticed the senior posting starts at [amount], so I'm trying to understand where this level tops out."

This does not tell you what the offer will be. It gives you a grounded number to aim for and a way to find out whether the employer sees you closer to the senior level.

What to do next

• Note which state's rules the posting falls under, and reread the definition in the table above.
• Divide the top of the range by the bottom. If the result is around two or more, plan to ask about levels and locations.
• Pull up the employer's other postings for the same job family and save screenshots.
• Look up your occupation's percentiles for your state or metro in OEWS, and check visa disclosure data if the employer files it.
• Write down your target number and practice the script out loud once before the call.
• If a covered employer posts without a range, the state labor agencies in California, Colorado, New York and Washington all take complaints. For anything beyond a missing range, such as possible pay discrimination, talk to the agency or an employment lawyer.

For more on what named employers pay, browse our company pay coverage, and when an offer arrives, our negotiation guides can help you respond.