How to Write a Salary Range in a Job Posting (With Examples)
Why the Wording in Your Salary Range Statement Matters More Than the Numbers
Picture this: your recruiting team posts a new Project Manager opening on four platforms simultaneously — your careers page, LinkedIn, Indeed, and a niche industry board. The salary line reads "competitive compensation, DOE." Three weeks later, a compliance review flags all four postings. Under California's current law, each non-compliant posting is treated as a separate violation — meaning one poorly worded salary line could generate multiple penalty events before a single candidate interview takes place.
This is not a hypothetical edge case. It is the exact mechanism that makes pay-transparency fines accumulate faster than most HR teams expect. The good news: the fix is mostly a wording problem. Get the salary range statement right once, and it covers every platform the posting runs on.
This article gives you copy-ready examples of compliant salary range language for a job posting, explains what each major jurisdiction expects from that language, and shows how to connect your posted range back to an underlying pay band so the number you publish is always defensible.
What "Compliant" Actually Means Jurisdiction by Jurisdiction
"Include a salary range" sounds simple. In practice, the rules differ enough across jurisdictions that a single universal template falls short. Before you write a word, you need to know which rules apply to your posting — and that depends on where the role will be performed (or where the candidate pool is located, in some remote-work scenarios). Verify the specifics with counsel or the relevant regulator; what follows is a research-based summary, not legal advice.
California. Under SB 1162 (effective January 1, 2023), employers with 15 or more employees must include a pay scale in every job posting. SB 642, effective January 1, 2026, sharpens that definition: "pay scale" means a good-faith estimate of the compensation the employer reasonably expects to pay upon hire. A vague statement such as "salary commensurate with experience" does not satisfy this requirement. Civil penalties run from $100 to $10,000 per violation, and SB 642 sets a three-year statute of limitations (regardless of willfulness), with a six-year look-back period during which employees may recover relief for an ongoing violation.
Colorado. The Equal Pay for Equal Work Act requires salary ranges in postings. Violations carry fines of $500 to $10,000 per violation; each non-compliant posting is a separate violation.
Ontario. Pay-transparency rules took effect January 1, 2026. Employers with 25 or more employees must include expected compensation or a salary range in any publicly advertised posting for roles up to $200,000, with the disclosed range not exceeding $50,000. Administrative fines under the Employment Standards Act can reach up to $500,000.
British Columbia. All provincially regulated employers have been required to include expected pay or a pay range in job postings since November 1, 2023. Critically, open-ended ranges are not permitted — "up to $30/hr" or "$20/hr and up" do not satisfy the requirement. A complete minimum and a complete maximum are both required.
For a full state-by-state breakdown, see our pay transparency laws by state 2026 guide.
The Anatomy of a Compliant Salary Range Statement
A compliant salary range statement for a job posting contains four elements. Not all jurisdictions require all four, but including them positions your posting well across multiple overlapping requirements.
- A concrete minimum. A real dollar figure — not a phrase like "market rate" or "competitive."
- A concrete maximum. A real dollar figure — not "and up" or "DOE."
- A pay frequency. Hourly, weekly, annual — make it unambiguous.
- A good-faith qualifier (recommended for California and similar states). A brief phrase noting that the range represents a good-faith estimate and that final compensation depends on experience, qualifications, and location.
Here is the minimal compliant structure, assembled:
Salary range: $[minimum] – $[maximum] [annually / per hour]
For California and Colorado, add the qualifier:
Salary range: $[minimum] – $[maximum] annually. This range represents a good-faith estimate of the compensation we expect to pay for this role. Final compensation will depend on the candidate's skills, experience, and location.
For British Columbia (where open-ended language is explicitly prohibited), confirm that both a minimum and a maximum appear, and that neither is left unspecified.
Copy-Ready Examples by Role Type
The following examples use fictional role titles and round numbers to illustrate format. They are not benchmarks — anchor your actual numbers to a real pay band. (If you need help building one, the complete guide to job band structure covers the method end to end.)
Salaried exempt role — multi-state US posting
Compensation: $58,000 – $72,000 per year, depending on experience and location. This is a good-faith estimate of the compensation range we expect to pay for this role at the time of posting. Actual compensation may vary based on skills, qualifications, and geographic location.
Why it works. It has a concrete minimum and maximum, a pay frequency (per year), and a good-faith qualifier that tracks California and Colorado requirements. "Depending on experience and location" signals legitimate reasons for placing a hire at different points within the range.
Hourly non-exempt role — single US state (not California or Colorado)
Pay rate: $19.00 – $23.50 per hour.
Why it works. Clean, unambiguous, no open-ended language. In a state without a posting requirement, this is best-practice disclosure rather than a legal mandate — but as pay-transparency laws expand across the US, publishing a range proactively insulates future postings without extra rework.
Salaried role — Ontario posting
Compensation: $62,000 – $78,000 per year. Compensation offered will be based on qualifications and experience.
Why it works. The spread between minimum and maximum ($16,000) stays well within Ontario's $50,000 spread rule. It is posted in annual figures for a role below the $200,000 threshold. The second sentence explains variability without using vague language in place of a range.
Hourly role — British Columbia posting
Pay range: $24.50 – $29.00 per hour.
Why it works. Both a minimum and maximum are stated. No open-ended qualifier appears. The BC Pay Transparency Act prohibits "up to $29/hr" or "$24.50/hr and up," so both anchors must be explicit.
The One Mistake That Multiplies Your Exposure
The most common error is not omitting a range — it is posting an unanchored range that cannot be traced to an underlying pay band.
If you publish "$58,000 – $90,000" for a mid-level role and a rejected candidate (or a regulator) asks how you arrived at those numbers, "that felt right" is not a defensible answer. California's SB 642 specifically characterizes the range as a good-faith estimate of what the employer reasonably expects to pay — which implies the number came from somewhere deliberate: a pay band, a benchmarked midpoint, an approved grade structure.
The salary range in your job posting is only as credible as the pay band behind it. A range with no band behind it is a guess; a range anchored to a band is a policy.
This is where having a documented job band structure pays off beyond compliance. When you set a band min and max from benchmarked data — such as BLS OEWS percentiles for the relevant SOC code — your posted range is traceable to a named data source, a methodology, and a date. That trail matters if a violation is ever alleged.
For a detailed look at how to derive a posting-safe range from a band without over-disclosing your full internal pay structure, see what is a posting-safe salary range.
A Worked Example: From Pay Band to Posted Range
Suppose you are building a posting for an Accountant I role. The BLS OEWS May 2025 national all-occupation mean wage was $69,770 — not directly the figure you would use for an accountant, but it illustrates the anchoring principle. In practice, you would pull the OEWS percentile data for SOC 13-2011 (Accountants and Auditors) in your metro area, set your band midpoint at or near a target percentile (say, the 50th), and then apply a range spread to derive the minimum and maximum.
Example inputs (illustrative only):
- Target midpoint: $62,000
- Range spread: ±20%
- Band minimum: $62,000 × 0.80 = $49,600
- Band maximum: $62,000 × 1.20 = $74,400
Posted range: $49,600 – $74,400 per year. This represents a good-faith estimate of compensation for this role. Final compensation depends on candidate experience, qualifications, and location.
This range is now anchored to a methodology. If you use Job Band Builder's band-export feature, the band document records the source data, the percentile anchor, and the spread — ready to produce as documentation if a compliance question arises.
Getting Your Posting Language Right Before the Next Hire
Compliant salary range language is not complicated — but it does require knowing which jurisdiction's rules apply, having an underlying pay band the range can be traced to, and keeping a template updated as new laws take effect. As of 2026, an estimated 65% of U.S. employers are subject to at least one active pay-transparency posting requirement (Lift HCM, 2026), and the footprint keeps expanding: Maine and Virginia both enacted new requirements taking effect in 2026, and Delaware's law takes effect in September 2027.
The pay transparency compliance hub tracks what is required and when. When you are ready to move from compliance research to ready-to-publish language, the Pay Transparency Job Posting Kit gives you jurisdiction-tagged posting templates, a salary range statement checklist, and a fill-in-the-blank disclosure block for US and Canadian postings — everything formatted for direct copy-paste into your ATS or careers page.
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