Transparency is a positive thing – except that not everyone is happy with it, and in the US there has been a rather ridiculous trend of companies that defy transparency requirements, but in an accompanying product also cause job seekers to avoid applying. ChatGPT helps us reflect the strange new situation.
In the past, job ads in the U.S. rarely included numerical information about the salary offered, but transparency legislation in states like Washington, California, Colorado, and New York in recent years has forced many recruiters to add salary ranges to promote transparency and pay parity. In practice, a disturbing trend has emerged: companies publish salary ranges that are too wide to avoid revealing the true salary levels.
A recent study by a team from Washington State University suggests that this tactic can have unintended consequences that could hurt recruitment efforts. The study, published in the Journal of Applied Psychology, delved into the impact of very wide salary ranges on employer perceptions in the eyes of job candidates. Participants in three separate experiments consistently showed negative responses to job ads that showed wide salary ranges, and saw such companies as less trustworthy.
Previous surveys have indicated that people generally trust organizations to provide salary ranges – but the new study looked at the difference in the ratio according to published salary ranges, and found that the breadth of the salary range shown plays a crucial role.
The study consisted of three experiments with diverse groups of participants to examine the impact of large pay ranges in job postings. In all experiments involving students, alumni, and people with recent job search experience, ads with broader pay ranges consistently generated less positive employer perceptions compared to narrower ranges. Participants defined the presentation of broad pay ranges as "dishonest," "dishonest," and even "ridiculous," and were even more skeptical when a wide salary range included a statement indicating that the amount of the offer would depend on the candidate's qualifications.
However, a seemingly objective explanation, according to which the offer would vary according to the candidate's geographical location, tended to improve candidates' impressions of the employer. In addition, there were exceptions who interpreted large salary ranges in a positive way, and saw room for growth in the position without the need for promotion.
Study author Kristin Kuhn, a researcher at the university's Carson College of Business, emphasized that it's not just the publication of the salary range that matters, but also the way payment information is presented. She said there was a need for a balance between flexibility to pay different candidates salaries that match their skills and level, and creating a positive image for candidates.
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