Job Postings With Broad Pay Ranges Leave Applicants Guessing in NYC

“It’s just incredibly frustrating,” said

Hang Xu,

a user-experience designer in New York who has been searching for a new role and said he is annoyed to see ranges for many roles spanning tens of thousands of dollars. “It’s completely useless from a negotiation standpoint.”

On Tuesday, New York City became the biggest job market in the U.S. to require employers to list pay ranges in job ads. Supporters hoped the rule would give workers an edge in pay negotiations that historically have left employers with most of the leverage. Economists and lawmakers predicted that New York’s law, and ones set to go into effect in California and Washington state in coming months, would reduce pay disparities across employee populations, jobs and industries.

Wide pay ranges often do little to clarify matters for employees, said

Daniel Zhao,

lead economist for Glassdoor, which for years has collected and disseminated pay information and reviews of employers. “If the difference is over $100,000 or double, that starts to become wide enough that it’s less useful,” Mr. Zhao said.

Mount Sinai, one of the largest hospital networks in New York, listed its trauma-surgeon opening in Staten Island as paying between $384,000 and $810,000 before incentives and benefits. An ad for a radiologist at Mount Sinai’s hospital in Brooklyn’s Midwood neighborhood said the job could pay as much as $525,000—or roughly half that amount, at $260,000.

“Healthcare is under unique and persistent employment pressure due to the pandemic. This can impact salaries and ranges,” a Mount Sinai spokeswoman said, adding that the organization takes experience and other factors into consideration when setting pay.

Executives and compensation specialists say companies may post broad ranges to accommodate differences among applicants in skills, experience or other factors. When insurance broker and consulting firm

Aon

AON 1.20%

PLC recruits externally for some senior positions, the company doesn’t always know the exact profile of an ideal candidate at the start of a search, said

Eric Andersen,

Aon’s president. Salary bands need to be large enough to accommodate a range of pay expectations, he said.

The pay bands on display now may also shift, compensation specialists say. Ranges could narrow over time if ads attract too few applicants, or if companies refine pay scales internally, perhaps after seeing competitors’ ads.

“It is entirely possible that companies, as they get used to seeing the applicants’ reactions to their ranges, make adjustments,” said

Helena Almeida,

vice president and managing counsel at payroll processor

Automatic Data Processing Inc.

ADP 0.32%

Many employers give narrow ranges in their New York City job listings. Law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom says the starting base salary for a senior human-resources generalist is $115,000 to $130,000.

Sony Group Corp.

SONY 3.41%

says a network-services manager role is paid between $130,000 and $135,000.

Some job seekers say any pay information is helpful.

Patrick Valentino,

a commercial real-estate attorney with roughly 30 years of experience, spent part of last week browsing listings for in-house counsel positions at New York companies. Even ranges that varied by $200,000 proved useful, he said.

“For me, being at the higher end of seniority, I feel like, ‘Now I know what I can shoot for,’ ” he said. Mr. Valentino said he filtered out some jobs by looking at the maximum pay for the role; if it was below his desired pay, he quickly moved on.

Candidates who are offered less than the top end of a pay range could have second thoughts about the job, while existing employees may raise questions, said

Christine Hendrickson,

vice president of strategic initiatives at the workplace analytics platform Syndio Inc.

“The employers that have the very wide ranges, it’s not a get-out-of-jail-free card,” Ms. Hendrickson said. “It’s going to spark a lot more conversations with candidates and employees.”

A challenge for employers is finding a number that reflects reasonable pay for the role and attracts job seekers, while still giving employers some flexibility, she said.

“It’s really a scenario almost like a Goldilocks,” Ms. Hendrickson said. “The range can’t be too big. It can’t be too narrow. It can’t be too high, it can’t be too low.”

Wide pay ranges aren’t just for the highest-paid employees. The New York Post, a tabloid owned by

News Corp,

NWSA 1.34%

said in a job ad that it would pay an online sports reporter and producer with at least a year or two of experience anywhere from $15 an hour, the full-time equivalent of about $31,200 a year, to $125,000 a year.

“We post a broad salary range to attract a wide array of potential applicants, in terms of years of experience and skills,” a New York Post spokeswoman said. “We do not want to rule out possible great candidates by aiming too high or too low in what we are prepared to offer.”

The fourfold gap between the figures was among the highest posted last week on the careers websites of several dozen large employers in New York. News Corp also owns Dow Jones & Co., the publisher of The Wall Street Journal. News Corp also advertised wide ranges for other roles, such as a salary between $140,000 and $450,000 for a Dow Jones vice president of audio and video audience development and revenue.

A spokeswoman for Dow Jones declined to comment.

Some companies include compensation in their job ads that isn’t covered by the new disclosure rule, such as bonuses and benefits. And some employers tell applicants that even base pay may differ from what is listed.

Mount Sinai, in its postings for doctors, says that experience, specialties, historical productivity and other factors also influence pay. “As such, an actual salary may fall closer to one or the other end of the range, and in certain circumstances, may wind up being outside of the listed salary range,” an ad says.

Write to Theo Francis at theo.francis@wsj.com and Chip Cutter at chip.cutter@wsj.com

“It’s just incredibly frustrating,” said

Hang Xu,

a user-experience designer in New York who has been searching for a new role and said he is annoyed to see ranges for many roles spanning tens of thousands of dollars. “It’s completely useless from a negotiation standpoint.”

On Tuesday, New York City became the biggest job market in the U.S. to require employers to list pay ranges in job ads. Supporters hoped the rule would give workers an edge in pay negotiations that historically have left employers with most of the leverage. Economists and lawmakers predicted that New York’s law, and ones set to go into effect in California and Washington state in coming months, would reduce pay disparities across employee populations, jobs and industries.

Wide pay ranges often do little to clarify matters for employees, said

Daniel Zhao,

lead economist for Glassdoor, which for years has collected and disseminated pay information and reviews of employers. “If the difference is over $100,000 or double, that starts to become wide enough that it’s less useful,” Mr. Zhao said.

Mount Sinai, one of the largest hospital networks in New York, listed its trauma-surgeon opening in Staten Island as paying between $384,000 and $810,000 before incentives and benefits. An ad for a radiologist at Mount Sinai’s hospital in Brooklyn’s Midwood neighborhood said the job could pay as much as $525,000—or roughly half that amount, at $260,000.

“Healthcare is under unique and persistent employment pressure due to the pandemic. This can impact salaries and ranges,” a Mount Sinai spokeswoman said, adding that the organization takes experience and other factors into consideration when setting pay.

Executives and compensation specialists say companies may post broad ranges to accommodate differences among applicants in skills, experience or other factors. When insurance broker and consulting firm

Aon

AON 1.20%

PLC recruits externally for some senior positions, the company doesn’t always know the exact profile of an ideal candidate at the start of a search, said

Eric Andersen,

Aon’s president. Salary bands need to be large enough to accommodate a range of pay expectations, he said.

The pay bands on display now may also shift, compensation specialists say. Ranges could narrow over time if ads attract too few applicants, or if companies refine pay scales internally, perhaps after seeing competitors’ ads.

“It is entirely possible that companies, as they get used to seeing the applicants’ reactions to their ranges, make adjustments,” said

Helena Almeida,

vice president and managing counsel at payroll processor

Automatic Data Processing Inc.

ADP 0.32%

Many employers give narrow ranges in their New York City job listings. Law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom says the starting base salary for a senior human-resources generalist is $115,000 to $130,000.

Sony Group Corp.

SONY 3.41%

says a network-services manager role is paid between $130,000 and $135,000.

Some job seekers say any pay information is helpful.

Patrick Valentino,

a commercial real-estate attorney with roughly 30 years of experience, spent part of last week browsing listings for in-house counsel positions at New York companies. Even ranges that varied by $200,000 proved useful, he said.

“For me, being at the higher end of seniority, I feel like, ‘Now I know what I can shoot for,’ ” he said. Mr. Valentino said he filtered out some jobs by looking at the maximum pay for the role; if it was below his desired pay, he quickly moved on.

Candidates who are offered less than the top end of a pay range could have second thoughts about the job, while existing employees may raise questions, said

Christine Hendrickson,

vice president of strategic initiatives at the workplace analytics platform Syndio Inc.

“The employers that have the very wide ranges, it’s not a get-out-of-jail-free card,” Ms. Hendrickson said. “It’s going to spark a lot more conversations with candidates and employees.”

A challenge for employers is finding a number that reflects reasonable pay for the role and attracts job seekers, while still giving employers some flexibility, she said.

“It’s really a scenario almost like a Goldilocks,” Ms. Hendrickson said. “The range can’t be too big. It can’t be too narrow. It can’t be too high, it can’t be too low.”

Wide pay ranges aren’t just for the highest-paid employees. The New York Post, a tabloid owned by

News Corp,

NWSA 1.34%

said in a job ad that it would pay an online sports reporter and producer with at least a year or two of experience anywhere from $15 an hour, the full-time equivalent of about $31,200 a year, to $125,000 a year.

“We post a broad salary range to attract a wide array of potential applicants, in terms of years of experience and skills,” a New York Post spokeswoman said. “We do not want to rule out possible great candidates by aiming too high or too low in what we are prepared to offer.”

The fourfold gap between the figures was among the highest posted last week on the careers websites of several dozen large employers in New York. News Corp also owns Dow Jones & Co., the publisher of The Wall Street Journal. News Corp also advertised wide ranges for other roles, such as a salary between $140,000 and $450,000 for a Dow Jones vice president of audio and video audience development and revenue.

A spokeswoman for Dow Jones declined to comment.

Some companies include compensation in their job ads that isn’t covered by the new disclosure rule, such as bonuses and benefits. And some employers tell applicants that even base pay may differ from what is listed.

Mount Sinai, in its postings for doctors, says that experience, specialties, historical productivity and other factors also influence pay. “As such, an actual salary may fall closer to one or the other end of the range, and in certain circumstances, may wind up being outside of the listed salary range,” an ad says.

Write to Theo Francis at theo.francis@wsj.com and Chip Cutter at chip.cutter@wsj.com