Salary clarity
Where Salary Ranges Actually Help Job Seekers
Rankings by role area, state, and metro
Updated June 24, 2026, 03:43 UTC · active U.S. listings snapshot
A salary range helps when it is specific enough to make a real decision. Corvi Careers scanned 1,376,085 active U.S. listings to find where posted pay ranges are common, and where those ranges are narrow enough to be useful. It uses the same salary cleanup as Salary Explorer: base pay in job postings only, not bonuses, equity, benefits, tips, or official wage estimates.
One interesting pattern: pay coverage and pay clarity are not always the same thing. For example, among role groups, Software, Data & AI has the highest salary coverage at 45.7%, but its typical parsed range is also wide at 28.3%. In other words, pay can be present without being especially useful.
Has a salary range
34.3%
471,964 active listings
Has a useful range
23.8%
327,618 active listings
Among posts with salary
69.4%
have a useful range; typical width 18.0%
What counts as useful?
A useful range has a clear minimum and maximum, uses a comparable U.S. dollar pay period, and is not too wide. "Not too wide" means the gap between the low and high end is no more than 30.0% of the midpoint.
Example: $120,000 to $150,000 is useful because the range is about 22% of the midpoint. $90,000 to $220,000 is not very helpful, because the range is almost 84% of the midpoint.
The salary cleanup follows the same base-pay rules used by Salary Explorer. We keep USD annual and hourly ranges that have a believable low and high end, convert annual-style periods to yearly dollars where needed, and exclude daily or weekly contract-style periods. Hourly ranges can still be compared here because width is a percentage of that range's own midpoint, not a dollar amount.
The "salary coverage" column is not a legal pay-transparency rate. It is the share of listings where Corvi Careers could parse a usable salary range from the posting. A posting may still mention pay in a way that is too vague, incomplete, non-USD, or otherwise not comparable enough for this analysis; our parser may also miss pay language that does not fit the formats we currently recognize.
Fast read
- Product, Design, Media & Content has the strongest role-area showing: 29.0% of active listings include a useful salary range.
- Remote U.S. listings are their own bucket: 32.2% have a useful range, and salary coverage is 47.3%.
- Among states, New York (NY) ranks first with useful ranges on 38.3% of active listings.
- Among metros, New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ-PA Metro Area ranks first at 38.9%.
- Overall, 34.3% of active U.S. listings show a usable salary range format, and 23.8% show a range narrow enough to help.
Useful salary ranges by role area
These broad role areas are where candidates are most likely to see a salary range that is both present and specific.
| Rank | Role area | Listings | Salary coverage | Useful range | Useful Pct | Width |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Product, Design, Media & Content | 14,148 | 43.6% | 29.0% | 66.4% | 22.2% |
| 2 | Education, Social Impact & Public Sector | 43,083 | 35.7% | 28.4% | 79.7% | 11.8% |
| 3 | Marketing, Sales & Customer Experience | 89,232 | 44.2% | 27.7% | 62.6% | 22.2% |
| 4 | Construction, Trades, Real Estate & Field Services | 80,509 | 36.4% | 26.4% | 72.6% | 16.2% |
| 5 | Finance, Legal & Risk | 60,457 | 43.2% | 26.1% | 60.4% | 25.0% |
| 6 | Business Operations, Administration & Leadership | 161,289 | 36.1% | 25.9% | 71.9% | 16.2% |
| 7 | Software, Data & AI | 53,511 | 45.7% | 25.3% | 55.4% | 28.3% |
| 8 | IT, Cloud, Security & Enterprise Platforms | 38,973 | 42.5% | 24.7% | 58.2% | 26.4% |
| 9 | Engineering, Manufacturing & Applied Science | 112,950 | 38.3% | 23.9% | 62.3% | 22.2% |
| 10 | Retail, Food, Hospitality & Services | 409,706 | 28.8% | 22.2% | 77.1% | 8.0% |
| 11 | Healthcare, Life Sciences & Wellness | 312,012 | 30.5% | 21.4% | 70.0% | 19.2% |
Useful salary ranges by state
State rankings only include listings tied to a state. Remote U.S. listings are shown separately: 32.2% have a useful salary range, and 47.3% have any salary range.
| Rank | State | Listings | Salary coverage | Useful range | Useful Pct | Width |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | New York (NY) | 78,151 | 54.2% | 38.3% | 70.8% | 17.4% |
| 2 | Colorado (CO) | 28,081 | 52.4% | 36.0% | 68.6% | 18.2% |
| 3 | New Jersey (NJ) | 33,194 | 51.5% | 35.9% | 69.7% | 17.3% |
| 4 | Massachusetts (MA) | 40,037 | 54.6% | 35.0% | 64.0% | 22.2% |
| 5 | California (CA) | 146,839 | 50.4% | 34.7% | 68.8% | 19.0% |
| 6 | Washington (WA) | 28,299 | 48.7% | 32.7% | 67.2% | 20.0% |
| 7 | Illinois (IL) | 49,029 | 49.3% | 31.8% | 64.4% | 21.1% |
| 8 | Minnesota (MN) | 24,418 | 51.2% | 28.0% | 54.7% | 26.1% |
| 9 | Maryland (MD) | 23,413 | 45.6% | 27.7% | 60.8% | 21.3% |
| 10 | Oregon (OR) | 12,089 | 31.6% | 24.2% | 76.4% | 15.6% |
| 11 | Nevada (NV) | 13,044 | 31.2% | 23.9% | 76.8% | 11.1% |
| 12 | Connecticut (CT) | 13,304 | 30.9% | 21.7% | 70.3% | 15.4% |
Useful salary ranges by metro
Metro rankings show where location-tied postings give candidates the clearest pay expectations.
| Rank | Metro | Listings | Salary coverage | Useful range | Useful Pct | Width |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ-PA Metro Area | 59,700 | 55.2% | 38.9% | 70.4% | 18.7% |
| 2 | Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA Metro Area | 39,639 | 54.7% | 38.8% | 71.1% | 16.2% |
| 3 | Boulder, CO Metro Area | 17,867 | 53.4% | 36.4% | 68.2% | 19.4% |
| 4 | Vallejo, CA Metro Area | 11,546 | 49.7% | 36.1% | 72.6% | 17.9% |
| 5 | Denver-Aurora-Lakewood, CO Metro Area | 16,038 | 53.1% | 35.9% | 67.6% | 19.4% |
| 6 | San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, CA Metro Area | 11,863 | 50.8% | 34.6% | 68.2% | 16.3% |
| 7 | Worcester, MA-CT Metro Area | 7,209 | 49.6% | 34.0% | 68.6% | 17.0% |
| 8 | Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH Metro Area | 29,844 | 55.2% | 33.6% | 60.9% | 25.1% |
| 9 | Bremerton-Silverdale-Port Orchard, WA Metro Area | 18,536 | 49.5% | 33.3% | 67.4% | 21.8% |
| 10 | Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA Metro Area | 18,566 | 49.5% | 33.2% | 67.1% | 22.0% |
| 11 | Sacramento-Roseville-Folsom, CA Metro Area | 5,411 | 46.6% | 32.2% | 69.1% | 19.7% |
| 12 | San Francisco Bay Area | 49,138 | 49.4% | 32.0% | 64.8% | 22.2% |
How to read this
- Role group rankings use the primary job category assigned to each listing. State and metro rankings use the job location records attached to each listing.
- Remote U.S. listings are tracked separately from state-tied listings and excluded from metro rankings.
- Salary coverage means Corvi Careers parsed a usable salary range from the posting. It should not be read as the exact share of employers that mention pay.
- Salary figures reflect base pay listed by employers in job postings. They are not guaranteed pay, actual take-home pay, Bureau of Labor Statistics wage estimates, or official wage statistics.
- Tips, bonuses, equity, commissions, and benefits are excluded when they are listed separately from base pay.
- Salary ranges are normalized with the same filters as Salary Explorer: USD only, clear minimum and maximum, believable annual or hourly values, and no daily or weekly contract-style periods.
- For this article, range width is calculated as (high end - low end) / midpoint. A listing is counted as useful when that width is 30.0% or lower.
- Rows need enough listing volume to rank: 1,000 listings for roles, 10,000 for states, and 5,000 for metros.