A growing number of U.S. states now require employers to disclose a salary range in job postings, current-employee pay data on request, or both. This is genuinely useful information for a job seeker, but it's easy to misread a posted range as a fixed, non-negotiable number — which is rarely what it actually is. This is general education, not legal advice; pay transparency law is changing quickly and varies by state, so check your specific state's current requirements rather than relying on a fixed list.

What these laws generally require

Most pay transparency laws require a "good faith" salary range in a job posting — meaning a range the employer genuinely expects to pay, not a deliberately wide band designed to technically comply while disclosing nothing useful. As of 2026, roughly a dozen and a half U.S. states plus Washington, D.C. have some version of this requirement, concentrated on the West Coast, in the Northeast, and in a few other individual states — with more states actively considering similar legislation. Some laws only require disclosure for job postings; others extend to current employees requesting their own pay band, or to remote roles that could be performed from a covered state regardless of where the company is headquartered.

Why a posted range isn't the final word

A posted range typically reflects where the company expects to place candidates across a spread of experience levels for that title — not a guarantee of where you personally will land within it. A wide range ("$70,000–$110,000") usually means the company hasn't yet decided exactly where a specific candidate fits, which is precisely why your own case for where in that range you belong still matters.

How to actually use a posted range

Treat the top of the range as your anchor, not the midpoint. If you meet or exceed the qualifications listed, there's no reason to assume you'll land in the middle by default — the range exists because someone will land near the top, and your job in a negotiation is to make the case that it should be you.

Ask what determines placement within the range, directly, once you're seriously being considered: "What typically determines where someone lands within this range?" A specific answer (years of experience, a particular certification, a skill gap the team is trying to fill) tells you exactly what to emphasize; a vague answer is itself useful information about how structured the process actually is.

Use the range as a starting data point, not your only one. A posted range tells you what one specific employer expects to pay for one specific role — it doesn't tell you what the broader market pays for your specific background. Cross-checking it against your own research using our Salary Range Estimator gives you a second, independent anchor to compare it against before a conversation.

What transparency doesn't guarantee

A posted range doesn't guarantee the employer will actually pay within it in every case, doesn't prevent a lowball opening offer near the bottom of a wide range, and doesn't replace the need to negotiate — it just gives you more information to negotiate with than you'd otherwise have. See our guide on negotiating salary after a job offer for the actual conversation mechanics once you have a number on the table.

If a posting doesn't include a range

In states that require it, a posting missing a range may simply be non-compliant, or may fall under an exemption (some laws only apply to employers above a certain size). It's reasonable to ask directly, early in the process, what range the role is budgeted for — the same request you'd make regardless of what your state's law happens to require, since the underlying goal, walking into a negotiation with real information instead of a guess, doesn't change based on the legal minimum.