NYC to require salary ranges be included in job postings

I've seen salaries being rolled out and I have found this not to be the case.

In reality, most places have a salary in mind for a position, and most hr teams are not going to post '[that salary] - 100k more' and they're probably not going to post a lower end that's less than what they have in mind.

I'm a recruiter.

I've known for a long time it drives people nuts that job ads don't have salary, or have a wide salary range.

The fact is that many employers don't actually know what they would be willing to pay someone. Until they have met them, assessed them, heard what they salary target is and weighed it up against their skills and experience and calibrated it against the team.

The conversation almost always goes like this: Employers come to me and say "we want a great senior C# .NET developer". I say "what do you want to pay?". They say "don't know, we just want someone great, what do you think we need to pay to get the right person?". I say "I think it will be about $X, but lets put a job ad up and indicate it's top of range $ and see who we get."

It is also true that a single job ad might be aiming to employ a number of people at various positions of seniority and experience.

Government agencies are required to carefully define salary ranges because that is the way they work. So it does not surprise me that governments would legislate to require job ads to do the same - essentially because of ignorance about how the world works.

If it makes you mad that job ads do not list salary, then there are good reasons and you will just have to get over or it not apply for that job.

It's that easy - if the ad doesn't specify salary and that is a key requirement for you, don't get angry, just don't apply.

Being angry about it or feeling that employers/recruiters are playing some sort of manipulative game is ignoring the reality set out above. And when you come into a position that requires recruiting, likely you'll speak to your recruiter and say "what do you think we'll need to pay for someone like this?".

Far more important is to know the salary target that you are aiming for.

EDIT: lots of unhappy responses to this, but don't shoot the messenger. Go ask your team lead/CEO/CTO how recruiting works.

The last startup I worked at ranged developers from 100k to 150k on paper but “senior devs” landed at around 125, while the current startup I work at didn’t list numbers but puts senior devs at around $200k plus generous bonuses.

Where you land always depends on performance and experience, sure, but knowing both ends of the range for any given title is still critically important to making a decision (and negotiating). If someone comes from a below-market rate company, they may not know what to even ask for or negotiate around because important information is obscured from them, and they’ll end up short-changing themselves.

I don't understand why they do this, but I guess it must work from time to time. Seems like a lot of effort to do the whole interview process and then try to get them to accept your lowball offer.

"This is convenient for corporations so suck it up." isn't a very compelling argument. The purpose of the government is to represent the interests of the people in situations where there is sufficient agreement to pass legislation. If your company doesn't like complying with local laws, its easy, just don't look for people in this country. The people have a right to set the terms of exchanges in the marketplace.