Salary bands

How bands work

Each level or role family gets a range anchored to market data: the midpoint tracks the market rate for solid performance at that level, the minimum admits developing performers, the maximum caps the range before promotion should take over. Individual pay then moves through the band with performance and experience. Band width varies by design, narrower for structured early-career levels, wider for senior roles where impact varies more.

Why bands matter more under transparency

Pay transparency laws in force across US states, in Ontario and BC, and expanding in Europe mean bands are increasingly published in job postings, and ranges wide enough to be meaningless now fail both compliance intent and candidate scepticism. A band you would not print is a band that needs fixing. Internally, bands are also the machinery of pay equity: like roles in like bands, with placement differences you can explain by level and performance rather than negotiation history.

The failure modes

Bands decay in known ways: midpoints not refreshed against market (the whole structure quietly sinks), exceptions granted until the band is fiction, new-hire offers at band maximums that compress against incumbents, and promotion used as the only legal pay rise once people hit their max. The maintenance is annual benchmarking, a tracked exception rate, and compa-ratio reporting to see where people actually sit.