Women are less likely to apply for jobs with a huge pay range. Here's what companies can do about it

"These laws often do not clearly articulate how broad a salary range should be, and simply instruct companies to provide a "good faith" salary range. As Fast Company has previously reported, this means some employers provide broad salary ranges that technically abide by the law, but are of little use to job applicants."

"Cornell's findings show that these wide salary bands can have the exact opposite effect than was intended by advocates of pay transparency: Across four studies, researchers saw significant variation in the breadth of salary ranges-and a clear pattern of women preferring jobs with narrower salary bands compared with their male counterparts."

"In terms of the implications of this work, those that applied to narrower pay ranges then negotiated less assertively, says Alice Lee, the new multipart study's lead author and assistant professor of organizational behavior."

Over the past decade, 15 states enacted pay transparency laws requiring employers to disclose salary information in job postings or interviews. However, Cornell University research reveals these laws have failed to achieve their goals. Many employers exploit vague legal language requiring only "good faith" salary ranges, resulting in excessively broad bands that provide minimal value to applicants. Studies show women preferentially avoid positions with wide salary ranges compared to men, inadvertently reinforcing gender pay gaps. Additionally, women who apply to jobs with narrower ranges subsequently negotiate less assertively, further undermining pay equity objectives despite legal protections.

Read at Fast Company