Salary band
Also called: pay band, salary range, compensation band
Why bands matter for SMB hiring
Three concrete effects, all measurable:
- Posting effect: postings with explicit salary bands get 50-80% more qualified applications. Candidates self-filter on the band rather than spending interview time discovering misalignment.
- Negotiation effect: bands set the conversation. “Top of band for senior signals” is a useful answer; “what are you looking for” without a band is an awkward dance.
- Equity effect: when bands exist and are applied, pay disparities between similar roles narrow. When they don’t, internal pay gaps grow over time and bite during performance reviews.
How to set one
For an SMB with no formal compensation team:
- Look at market data for the role and location. Levels.fyi, Glassdoor, Payscale, kununu give you a 25th-50th-75th percentile.
- Place your band against your strategy. Pay 25th percentile = “we’ll lose senior candidates to comp.” Pay 75th = “comp won’t be the reason they decline.” Pick where you sit.
- Make the band wide enough for real seniority spread: typically 25-35% top-to-bottom. Narrower and you can’t offer flexibility for stronger candidates.
What goes wrong
- Fake bands: 60% top-to-bottom (€40k-€100k for “any senior engineer”). Communicates nothing.
- No floor: showing only the top of the band. Candidates assume they’ll be offered the bottom.
- Drift: a band set in 2022 still in use in 2026 with no market re-check. Loses competitiveness silently.
Where Join fits
Salary-band fields are required on every Join job posting. The same field surfaces during offer drafting. See the features page.
