Pay Range Transparency

How precisely are CA employers disclosing pay?

California's Pay Transparency Law requires salary disclosure in covered public job postings, with no cap on range width. The width of the range itself tells you how confidently an employer has defined the role's compensation.

Precise range

28%

Range width ≤ $50k — employer has a well-defined compensation band for this role.

Broad range

58%

Range width > $50k — may reflect multiple seniority levels or unsettled pay planning.

National/remote mix

14%

National or remote postings — may not be clearly attributable to this state's posting rule. Disclosures are kept as market signals.

Note: All three groups add to 100% of current postings. "Precise" and "Broad" reflect how wide the disclosed salary range is — not a legal compliance judgement, since CA sets no range-width cap. National or remote postings are shown separately as market signals.

What California's Pay Transparency Law requires

California's Pay Transparency Law (Labor Code §432.3) took effect January 1, 2023. It applies to employers with 15 or more employees and requires a pay scale in every job posting — including postings for remote roles that a California resident could perform.

Who

Employers with 15+ employees

Any employer with 15 or more employees must post the pay scale in all job advertisements — including roles posted on third-party job boards.

Where

Public external job ad

The rule is about public postings ordinary applicants can see.

Pay rule

Pay scale in every posting

The posted pay scale must reflect what the employer genuinely expects to pay — not a token range. The DFEH has pursued enforcement against employers posting implausibly wide ranges.

Exception

Remote jobs included

If a California resident could perform the job remotely, the posting must include the California pay scale — even if the employer is headquartered elsewhere.

Step 1

Applies to every CA employer

CA Labor Code §432.3 covers employers with 15 or more employees — and also requires employers to provide pay scale upon request to any current employee.

Step 2

The posting has to be public

The rule is aimed at publicly advertised job postings — in practice, the external job ads ordinary applicants can see.

Step 3

Disclose a number or a range

Employers may post a specific salary or a salary range. Vague terms like "competitive" or "up to $X" are not allowed — a real number is required.

Step 4

Pay history is off-limits

CA employers cannot ask or use candidates' salary history — a protection built directly into Labor Code §432.3 since 2018.

CA Labor Code §432.3: mandatory disclosure Federal contractors: often voluntary disclosure

What else California employers must disclose

No salary history questions Employers may not ask candidates about current or past pay at any point in the hiring process — California law since 2018.

✓

Pay scale on request (employees) California employees can request the pay scale for their own position at any time — employers must provide it within a reasonable time.

Pay data reporting (100+ employees) California employers with 100+ employees must annually submit pay data reports to the Civil Rights Department, broken down by race, ethnicity, and sex.

Important context: national or remote postings may not be clearly attributable to this state's posting rule. Salary disclosures from large national employers are shown as disclosure signals, not compliance findings.

This site focuses mainly on the salary-range part of the rule, because that is the piece that can be measured consistently across thousands of postings.

Employer Ranking

Who's posting the widest ranges?

California employers ranked by number of postings with salary ranges wider than $50,000. Note: this is not a compliance violation in CA — there is no width cap. Wide ranges may signal vague pay planning. National or remote postings are retained as disclosure signals rather than compliance findings.

Wide-range postings by employer (>$50k span)

Postings with salary range span exceeding $50k. Not a CA Act violation — shown as a pay-planning signal only. Employers with only 1 such posting omitted.

Key finding

California data is still growing. As more postings are scraped, employer patterns — which companies post tight ranges vs. vague bands — will become clearer.

How to read CA range data

In California, range width is a signal about pay philosophy — the law requires disclosure but sets no width limit. A narrow range ($5k–$15k wide) suggests the employer knows exactly what they'll pay. A wide range ($100k+) often means the role spans multiple seniority levels, or the employer hasn't finalized compensation for this hire.

Employer Profiles

Employers by salary range width

Each bubble is one employer (≥3 postings). Horizontal position = median salary range width as a % of midpoint salary. Vertical position = % postings with range ≤$50k wide. Bubble size = number of postings. Federally regulated employers appear in the chart but their disclosures are voluntary.

Mostly precise ranges Wide-range postings present Mostly exempt (>$200k)

Bubbles in the top-left (narrow ranges) represent employers with precise, confident pay bands. Bubbles in the bottom-right post wide, vague ranges — this is not a CA law violation but may indicate multi-level postings or unsettled compensation planning. Very narrow ranges (<10%) often indicate a fixed pay point rather than a true band.

Range Quality Analysis

Range or just a number?

Not every "salary range" is a real compensation band. A range spread ratio (width ÷ midpoint) below 15% is more likely a fixed pay rate disclosed as a range — semantically different from a structured band. This matters when comparing employers or deciding whether to negotiate.

Absolute width distribution

All CA postings. Dashed line = $50k mark (boundary between precise and broad ranges).

Tight range (≤$50k)

Wide range (>$50k)

Range spread ratio

Width as % of midpoint salary. Industry standard: 25–55% is a typical salary band.

Pay point (<15%)

Structured band (15–65%)

Wide (>65%)

Median spread ratio by sector

Median range spread ratio across job categories. Regulated postings only. Green = within typical band; grey = pay-point heavy; amber = wide.

Pay point vs. salary range: A spread ratio below 15% (e.g. $144k–$148k) reflects a fixed compensation rate — the employer knows exactly what they'll pay and the "range" is nominal. This is common at firms with rigid job-level pricing. It is not inherently worse, just less informative for negotiation.

What's a standard band? Compensation research places a typical salary band at ±15–25% of midpoint (30–50% spread ratio). California's dataset is still growing — these patterns will sharpen as more postings are added.

Cross-Category Patterns

What the skill list can tell you

Before exploring the charts: two structural patterns appear consistently across every job category in this dataset — understanding them changes how you read any job posting.

Consistent discount signal

Generic skills mark entry-level roles — not skill value

Customer Service, Communication, Problem Solving consistently appear 27–41% below the median salary in every category where they show up with enough data. This isn't because these skills are worthless — it's because they're listed by employers filling frontline and junior positions, regardless of industry.

A Finance job listing "Customer Service" is likely a bank teller role ($59k), not an analyst ($100k+). The skill is a proxy for the role tier, not the skill itself.

Consistent premium signal

Specific and cross-functional skills signal senior roles

Technical Leadership, Cross-Functional Collaboration, Product/Project Management command 24–39% above median across every category they appear in. These skills require domain expertise and are harder to fake in a job description — employers can only list them when the role genuinely demands them.

"Technical Leadership" in IT pays 39% above IT median. In Engineering, 27% above. The signal is consistent because the specialization is real.

How to read a job posting

A job's skill list can point to seniority

The data suggests a simple heuristic: count the generic skills vs. specific skills in any job description.

If the "required skills" section is dominated by Communication, Customer Service, Problem Solving, Teamwork — the employer is likely filling a commodity role. Salary will reflect that.

If the required skills include Technical Leadership, Cross-Functional Collaboration, specific tools or methodologies — the employer is describing something harder to find, and the salary follows.

This pattern holds across Finance, Engineering, IT, Operations, Sales, and Product — it isn't a category quirk.

Skill × Salary Analysis

Which skills show higher pay?

Comparing median salaries for jobs that list each skill against the category median — sourced from California's legally-required salary disclosures under the Pay Transparency Law. Select a category to explore.

Select category

Methodology & caveats

Correlation, not causation. These skills co-occur with seniority — we can't isolate the skill's independent effect without controlling for job level and firm size.
Extraction quality varies. Skills were extracted from raw job descriptions. Generic phrases like "problem solving" may be extracted inconsistently across postings.
Minimum 15 jobs per skill. Low-sample findings are excluded, but sample sizes still vary widely — higher-n findings carry more weight.
California only. CA Labor Code §432.3 salary disclosures. Results may not generalize to other labour markets.

See what CA employers disclose.