In Washington, employers are now required to include salary ranges when they advertise open positions. Some take it to extremes.
"It's technically complying but it's not very transparent," said Washington State University College of Business researcher Kristine Kuhn.
Kuhn wondered what job applicants think when they see, for example, a salary listed as $50,000-100,000. As part of her work, she asked three groups of people, including undergraduate students in one of her classes.
“Half the students saw the ad where the company was advertising between $40,000 and $90,000 a year and the other half of the students saw the same ad advertising between $60,000 and $70,000 a year. Same mid point, but one range is very wide and those students tended to perceive the company as slightly less trustworthy," Kuhn said.
She says the study respondents in all three groups expected some leeway in listed salary levels.
"If you get into high level jobs, people are used to the pay being somewhat uncertain because a lot of it might depend on things like bonuses or stock options and so they don't really expect a precise number," Kuhn said.
She says participants paid close attention to explanations about how salary levels might be tied to an applicant’s experience or geographic location.
Kuhn says some businesses in the states where posting salary ranges are required are struggling with it.
"They know that they need to comply, but there are a lot of strategic reasons that people are leery about being transparent about pay," she said. "You might worry about how your current employees will react. You might worry about them coming in and demanding raises. I still want people who are maybe a little bit overqualified to apply, so I'll advertise a very wide range. But that can have negative impacts on the number of people are likely to recruit."
Kuhn says companies are apparently aware of the problem and developing their own solutions.
“I’ve just started to see some ads where they will specifically give two ranges," she said. "Here’s the salary range for San Francisco and New York and here’s the other salary range for if you’re located anywhere else. If I had to make my best guess, I think we might see people being more precise based on specific reasons rather than just giving these huge ranges.”
Kuhn’s research is published in the Journal of Applied Psychology.
