This article is trash, and there’s nothing nefarious going on—this is all standard HR stuff. “We need to hire someone.” “What level?” “Dunno. Experienced junio

This article is trash, and there’s nothing nefarious going on—this is all standard HR stuff. “We need to hire someone.” “What level?” “Dunno. Experienced junior or new senior engineer could work. Depends on experience and education of the candidate.” “HR: ok, here’s a job posting at the Junior-or-senior level.” Pay range: from the minimum of the lower junior level to the maximum of the senior level as allowed by company HR policy. We interview the candidate. During interviews we establish the candidate’s experience level and share that recommendation with HR. HR then negotiates salary and TC within the allowed HR guidelines and the selected pay band. Something very close to this has been the process at all employers I’ve worked at—public and private. Here’s the GS equivalent for NSPS/STRL pay scales used by the US Navy when I was a civil service engineer https://images.federalregister.gov/EN14FE11.000/original.gif?1297497744 https://images.federalregister.gov/EN14FE11.000/original.gif... Notice that a science & engineering (S&E) DP-III position spans GS-9 thru 11, and a DP-IV spans GS-12 & 13. So if I wanted to hire someone at the cusp between those experience levels the published salary range would be $71k-$158k. https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/pay-leave/salaries-wages/salary-tables/pdf/2023/SF.pdf https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/pay-leave/salaries... Big tech companies have the same kind of scales—E3/4, L3/4, ICT3/4–with wider comp ranges in the bands. It’s not malicious compliance, it’s that those are the actual ranges approved by company HR policy to they can pay at those pay band levels. I would also expect that company policy establishes guidelines for salary offers and negotiation during hiring. So the law is asking the wrong question. It should be asking about the salary distribution of job offers accepted for comparable positions at the company. (Lots of wiggle room there still, but you get the point—it’s not about how much they can pay for a job, but about how much they do pay for that job.)