I think it's more like they don't know how much you're worth, so they'll give you a chance to prove yourself. Depending on how you do, you may end up at the hig

I think it's more like they don't know how much you're worth, so they'll give you a chance to prove yourself. Depending on how you do, you may end up at the high end, the low end, or anywhere in between. There's only so much signal you can get from an interview or from reading someone's resume, and that signal is often obscured by the interviewers' biases. It seems to me that this way of doing things can lead to more equitable outcomes (which is the stated goal of publishing salary ranges) as it lets you evaluate and compensate people based on performance in their actual job.