I'm the person hiring. I used to have this problem a lot and I solved it. I started just deciding what the pay for the position would be in advance and posting

I'm the person hiring. I used to have this problem a lot and I solved it. I started just deciding what the pay for the position would be in advance and posting it. I don't negotiate, if that comes up I say we give very aggressive raises and promotions to people who exceed expectations (which is true) but I understand if that's not something you can rely on. As an exercise in transparency we're posting the actual exact starting salary and this is what it is. Feedback has been across the board positive. Presumably some people look at the pay and feel like it's slightly too low and we don't get them. That's fine, it's a reasonable tradeoff for eliminating the confusion and bad feelings created by not being transparent. There's nothing stopping us from posting a similar position as well (perhaps with a slightly more senior title) with slightly higher pay. I think the whole kabuki dance of not telling people the actual comp is inefficient and pointless and I'm fine if it goes away.