instruction · evidence-based answer
How do I set salary ranges or pay bands?
The short answer
Build the job architecture first — levels and families — because the level, not the title, is the real key. Anchor each level to market data at a chosen percentile, set a range width and a midpoint-progression between levels, and decide your lead or lag posture deliberately. Ranges laid over a coherent leveling spine hold; ranges without one become a pile of negotiated exceptions that no equity or budget analysis can trust.
The problem underneath
Pay ranges built without a leveling spine or defensible market anchor collapse into negotiated exceptions, which then corrupt every equity and budgeting analysis downstream.
Go deeper
Related questions
- How do you build a pay structure?
- How do I create salary bands for our roles?
Stop re-deriving this by hand. Pay-structure tools and market datasets — Build ranges on a leveling spine and defensible market anchors — not one-off negotiation.