> [...]but my friend had no idea the other range was open to him. This asymmetric information is the intention of the employer, but sadly, in most cases it goe

> [...]but my friend had no idea the other range was open to him. This asymmetric information is the intention of the employer, but sadly, in most cases it goes the other way: person gets hired as an SDE 2, but earns less than some/all SDE 1's because they are terrible at negotiating, or their salary history was always below market rate and they do not know it. I'm all for companies paying commensurate salaries and having the flexibility to do so - publishing salaries ranges when posting jobs is orthogonal to that. > i think it misses some edge cases that are not uncommon. In your friends case, I hope/wish the law covers that scenario whereby the employer is forced to disclose the range for the upgraded when asked - so that all your friend needed to do was ask.