Salary Ranges on Job Postings - Why It's Important

I know. You've become used to this blog being a fun little thing about cocktails and activities. I rarely post about work-related issues, mainly because I'm usually just head down, doin' the work. But this one is really important to me.

For the love of all things holy, when you post a job description, please include a salary range!

I’m so committed to this that I’ve recently made the professional decision that I’ll no longer share job descriptions that don’t have a salary range in them. 

I’ve been in this business long enough to remember when wages were the third rail that was never touched, and so it took some re-aligning on my part, but I’m glad I did. In the beginning, it flew against everything I thought I knew. Wouldn’t you want the ultimate amount of flexibility for the job, to bring in someone with promise at a lower level and let them grow with the position? Or to be able to draw someone at a higher level, who was interested in your organization? What if you found the perfect unicorn of a candidate, who loved your non-profit so much they were willing to do the job for less money? And what about internal hires, where the increase might be steep or where you didn’t want current employees to know how much you were hiring at? (I know. I sound like a 1962 edition of What Color Is Your Parachute?) It took a lot of rethinking on my part.

But I read study after study that talked about how listing salary ranges was crucial to transparency. How it was especially key to attract women and POC, who often come from a lower salary history (through no fault of their own). How this was good for the employer, to consider exactly what was included in the job and how that fit into the ecosystem of their organization. And it goes without saying that it’s a huge waste of everyone’s time and resources to spent time courting a wonderful candidate, who has to regretfully decline once you finally pull back the curtain to reveal the dollar figures.

There are plenty of ways to do this. Post a super-broad range. Add that vaguer term “DOQ” at the end. And it goes without saying that positing a position on a few job sites, just hoping that someone will stumble across it and be perfect for your organization, is about as effective as shooting a bunch of stay-puffs from a marshmallow shooter into the woods while planning on bringing home a grouse to eat for dinner. If you post a position and do not have your board, staff, and other constituencies out doing outreach for you and actively looking for the right person — and thus expressing any flexibility in wages and benefits — you are missing a golden chance to connect others to your mission and organization, and potentially losing out on finding the perfect candidate that might be right under your nose.

So I’m a convert. And if you are in a position of authority in hiring, I invite you to be as well. You’ll be surprised at how much better it is. And if you are with an organization that is posting a position (with salary ranges!), please share it with me and I would love to help spread the word and find you a fantastic new hire!