Salary ranges
How pay varies by role, level and industry, why a single published range is rarely the whole picture, and where to get one — because ClearHire does not publish salary data.
- Last reviewed
- Length
- About 6 minutes
- Scope
- Maintained, not published. Corrections welcome.
ClearHire does not publish salary ranges, and this page will not invent one. What it can usefully do is explain how a range is built, why two sources disagree about the same job, and how to read one without over-trusting it — because the mistake that costs money is not picking the wrong number, it is treating any single number as the market. A range is an aggregate of a set of people who chose to report, at some point in the past, under a job title that may not mean the same thing at two companies. Every one of those qualifiers moves the figure, and none of them is visible on the chart.
Where it applies.
Setting a target before you apply
Decide the number, and the reason for it, before anyone asks. A figure you can justify survives being questioned; one you picked off a chart does not, and the question always comes.
Reading a recruiter's range
A stated band tells you what the company has budgeted, not what the role is worth. Where it sits against two independent sources is the useful signal — and if it sits well below both, that is information about the company rather than about you.
Understanding why two sources disagree
Job titles are not standardised, so the same word covers different jobs at different companies. Where two sources diverge sharply, the title is usually doing different work in each — which is worth knowing before an interview, not after an offer.
Building a defensible number rather than a hopeful one
A number you can explain survives a follow-up question; a number you picked does not. Write down the two sources, the level you are targeting, and the adjustment you made for location and package shape. The written version is what you read from when the conversation happens, and the act of writing it usually changes the number.
How it works.
Be specific about the role, the level and the place
"Senior backend engineer, Lahore" produces something usable. "Engineer" produces a number so wide it can support any position you already held, which is how a range gets used to confirm a decision rather than to inform one.
Find the sample size and the date, or discount the source
A range with neither is a rumour with axes. Twelve months is old in a moving market, and a handful of reports is a handful of people rather than a market.
Read two sources that disagree, not one that agrees with you
Where two independent sources overlap is the part worth relying on. Where they diverge tells you the title means different things at different companies, which is itself useful before an interview.
Convert base into the whole package before comparing
Base alone undersells most office roles once a bonus, an employer pension contribution and anything with a number on it are counted. The total-package calculator does that arithmetic on figures you type; it looks nothing up.
Decide your number before the conversation, and write down why
A figure you can justify survives being questioned. A figure you picked from a chart does not, and the question always comes.
Worked illustrations.
Constructed to show the shape of the decision, not reported cases. The figures are illustrative.
A senior PM checking the band before negotiating
Range for senior PM in target metro is $180K–$230K base. Recruiter offers $190K. Candidate references the data and counters at $215K. Recruiter approves $205K. Without the data, candidate would have accepted the initial offer.
A candidate spotting a below-market recruiter range
Recruiter range: $130K–$150K. ClearHire data + Glassdoor: $160K–$185K for the level. Candidate politely pushes back; recruiter raises ceiling to $165K. Worth the 30 seconds of validation.
Questions people bring here.
- Why do two salary sources disagree about the same job?
- Because they are usually measuring different populations and calling them the same thing. One may be self-reported by people who chose to report, another drawn from job adverts that list a band they intend to hire below, another from a survey of a specific industry in a specific year. None of that is visible in the headline number. Two sources disagreeing is the normal case, and the useful information is in why.
- Does ClearHire publish its own salary data?
- No. ClearHire holds no compensation dataset and this page will not invent one — it explains how ranges are built and how to read them, and points you at sources that do collect data. Saying so plainly matters more than it might seem: a page that implied it had numbers would be the most useful-looking and least trustworthy thing on the site.
- What should I look for before trusting a published range?
- The sample size, the date and the exact definition of the role. A range built on a handful of responses is noise; a range from three years ago is describing a different market; and a title means different things at different companies, so a range for a title without a level attached is nearly meaningless. If a source will not tell you those three things, discount it rather than using it carefully.
- Is the range in a job advert the real range?
- It is the range they are allowed to advertise, which is usually wider than the range they intend to pay. Many employers post a band spanning two levels and hire in the lower half. Treat the top of an advertised band as reachable rather than expected, and ask early which level the role is scoped at — that question narrows the band far more than any negotiation will.
- How do I compare a range against an actual offer?
- Convert both into the whole package before comparing. A base at the bottom of a band with a real bonus, a match and equity can beat a base at the top with none of those, and comparing base against base gets that backwards. Build one annual figure for each, write down what you assumed about bonus attainment and vesting, and compare those.
- What if I cannot find any range for my role?
- Triangulate from adjacent roles and ask people who do the job. Very specific or very new roles often have no published data at all, and the honest answer is a wider range with lower confidence rather than a precise number with none. Two conversations with people actually doing the work will usually beat any dataset you can find for a niche title.
Small things that help.
- ClearHire publishes no salary dataset. Any page here that appears to quote one is wrong and we want to hear about it.
- A single published range is one sample of one population, aged by however long since it was collected.
- Two sources that agree are worth more than one that flatters you.
- Job titles are not standardised. "Senior" at a forty-person company and at a four-thousand-person company are different jobs with the same word on them.
- Base is not the package. Run the arithmetic before comparing two offers, not after accepting one.
- A range tells you what a role paid other people. What it pays you is decided in a conversation, and the number is only one of the things being decided.
Written to be corrected. If something here is wrong, say so and it changes.