Originally found at Well + Good

Salaries have historically been hidden from job postings, which has long put job hunters in a tricky position. Without knowing the salary of a role (beyond a researched estimate), they’ve either had to wait to receive an offer (and then guess how much room for negotiation there might be), or ask the hiring manager and risk being met with the dreaded, "Well, how much are you looking for?" response. But the recent rise of pay transparency—laws in cities and states that require employers to share salary ranges on job listings—seems to remove the need for this negotiation dance and ensure fairer compensation.

In theory, an applicant now knows the upper and lower limits from the get-go, and they’re arriving at the offer with the same information as HR. In practice, though, things are a bit more complex. Pay transparency does remove some of the stress of negotiating from a prospective hire because, after all, the top amount is set—assuming the range published is the truth, which isn’t always the case (more on that below). It’s also likely that an employer will “bargain more aggressively with prospective employees because being more generous with one person at any level would require them to be more generous with everyone at that level,” says economist Zoe Cullen, PhD, an assistant professor at Harvard Business School who studies the design of labor markets. “As a result, salary transparency can help equalize wages.”

...“In fact, there’s evidence that as the salary playing field evens out, personal requests for non-salary benefits go up—and hiring managers are inclined to grant those requests. “Putting salary under the spotlight just motivates those who are in charge of compensation to shift their allocations to an area that’s not under the spotlight,” says Peter Bamberger, PhD, professor at Tel Aviv University’s Coller School of Management and editor-in-chief of the Academy of Management Discoveries. “So, just reporting salaries is pretty limited in terms of actually ensuring equity.” Again, all the more reason to consider how you might still negotiate your salary to ensure you're getting what you're worth, even when the range is publicly posted.”

Continue reading the original article at Well + Good.

Read the original research in Academy of Management Journal.

Learn more about the AOM Scholars and explore their work:

• Man-Nok Wong, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Sun Yat-sen University
• Bonnie Hayden Cheng, University of Hong Kong
• Peter A. Bamberger, Tel Aviv University