· 6 min read
Salary transparency in job postings: what to include and how to check it
Pay transparency is now law in a growing list of US states and expected almost everywhere else. Here's what a compliant salary range looks like in a job posting, the mistakes that undercut it, and how to check a posting before you publish.
Posting a job without a salary range used to be normal. It is now a legal problem in a growing list of US states and a conversion problem everywhere else. Candidates filter on pay, and a posting that hides it gets skipped — surveys consistently find that the large majority of job seekers are more likely to apply when a range is shown. Here is what belongs in a job posting, what quietly fails, and how to check a posting before it goes live.
What pay transparency law actually requires
The details vary by jurisdiction, but the common core is the same: if the role could be performed in a covered state, the posting must disclose a good-faith pay range. A growing number of US states — including California, Colorado, New York, Washington, Illinois, Minnesota, and Hawaii — now require some form of pay disclosure in job advertisements, and the EU Pay Transparency Directive extends comparable duties to European employers.
Two practical consequences catch employers out:
- Remote roles pull you into other states' rules. A posting that says "remote, US" is generally treated as open to candidates in covered states, so the disclosure requirement follows.
- Third-party postings count. If you syndicate a job to a job board or hand it to an agency, the range usually has to travel with it.
What a good salary range looks like
A compliant, credible range is:
- Specific. "$85,000–$105,000" works. "Competitive," "DOE," or "commensurate with experience" does not.
- Good faith. The range should be what you would actually pay for the role — not a token band you have no intention of honoring at either end.
- Bounded. A range so wide it means nothing ("$60,000–$180,000") reads as evasion and, in several states, does not satisfy the good-faith standard.
- Complete. For roles where variable pay is a real part of the package, say so: base range plus bonus, commission structure, or equity.
The mistakes that undercut an honest range
Even employers who intend to comply lose the benefit through presentation:
Burying it. A range in the last line under "Additional information" is missed by candidates skimming for 30 seconds. Put pay near the top, close to the title and location.
Splitting pay from the rest of the offer. Health coverage, retirement match, and paid leave are part of what the candidate is comparing. A range without context reads lower than the same range next to the benefits it comes with.
Leaving currency and period ambiguous. "$90,000" is clear. "90K" alongside an hourly-paid role is not. State the currency and whether the figure is annual, hourly, or monthly.
Forgetting the posting is a web page. A range written into an image, or into a PDF attachment, is invisible to both candidates on phones and to search engines.
Check the posting before you publish
Pay disclosure is the easiest part of a job description to get wrong by omission — it is the one item that is either present or not, and the person writing the posting usually knows the number well enough to forget they never wrote it down.
Paste your job description into JobAuditor for a free instant check. It flags a missing or vague salary range, and in the same pass reviews the posting for biased language, readability, and SEO gaps — about 30 seconds, no signup required. If you want the pay-equity angle too, the bias checker scans the same text for wording that skews who applies in the first place.
This article is general information about job posting practices, not legal advice. Pay transparency requirements change and vary by jurisdiction — confirm the current rules for the states you hire in.