Why look up ranges before you talk to anyone
Walking into a process with no sense of the pay range puts you at a disadvantage that has nothing to do with skill. You cannot tell whether a recruiter's number is generous or low, you cannot judge whether a role is worth the time of a long interview loop, and you cannot give a sensible answer when someone asks what you are looking for. A bit of homework fixes all three problems.
This guide is about research, not tactics. It does not tell you what to ask for or how to push a number up. The goal is narrower and more useful: to help you build an honest, evidence-based picture of what a role tends to pay so you can make informed decisions. Treat everything here as background information rather than financial advice, and remember that your own circumstances, location, and level matter more than any single chart.
Start with public, structured data
The most reliable starting points are sources that aggregate many data points and publish their method. They will not be exact for one company, but they give you a defensible middle.
A few worth knowing:
- Levels.fyi collects self-reported compensation for tech roles, broken down by company and level. It is strongest for larger US technology firms and weaker for small companies and non-US markets.
- Glassdoor salary pages cover a broad range of employers and countries, though the data is self-reported and can mix titles together.
- For US occupational figures, the BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics is a primary government source with median and percentile wages by occupation and area.
- For UK context, the ONS labour market pages give macro wage trends, though they are not a company-level pay database.
Read at least two of these for any role, because each has a different bias. When they roughly agree, you have a usable range. When they diverge sharply, that gap is itself information, usually about level or location.
Use the job adverts themselves
Pay transparency rules have made job adverts a much better data source than they used to be. Postings covered by New York's pay transparency law and New York City's salary transparency rules must show a good-faith range. The EU Pay Transparency Directive pushes employers toward giving pre-interview salary information ahead of its mid-2026 deadlines. The UK has moved more slowly, with government guidance encouraging transparency rather than mandating ranges. Primary sources are the New York State pay transparency law, the NYC salary transparency page, and the EU pay transparency policy.
In practice this means you can often find several current adverts for the same kind of role, read the posted ranges, and build your own small sample. Look at adverts from the company you are interviewing with, then at three or four direct competitors hiring for a similar title. The spread across those adverts is usually a better guide than any single database figure.
Read the number in context
A salary figure on its own means very little. Before you treat any range as relevant to you, line it up against a few things.
Level and scope
The same title can sit at very different levels. A "software engineer" range that looks low might be an early-career band, while a senior band under the same title sits far higher. Whenever a source lets you filter by level, do it, and try to match the level to the scope described in the job advert rather than the title alone.
Location and remote policy
Location changes everything. London, a regional UK city, a high-cost US metro, and a fully remote role priced on a single global band are four different markets. Some companies pay remote staff by their location, others use one band for everyone. A figure pulled from a San Francisco data set tells you almost nothing about a role based in Manchester.
Total package, not base alone
Base salary is one component. Bonuses, equity, pension contributions, and benefits can move the real value of a role significantly, and they vary by company stage. A startup may pair a lower base with equity that carries both upside and risk, while a larger firm may offer a higher base with restricted stock. When you compare ranges, try to compare like with like, and note where a figure is base only versus total compensation.
Build a one-page picture
Pull your research into a short note you can actually use. It does not need to be elaborate.
Role / level: backend engineer, mid-level, London
Public data midpoint: from Levels.fyi and Glassdoor
Advert ranges seen: company advert + 3 competitors
Base vs total: note which figures include bonus or equity
Confidence: high / medium / low, and why
The confidence line matters. If you only found two stale data points, say so. A wide, uncertain range is honest and still useful, because it stops you from anchoring hard on a number you cannot defend.
Sense-check before you rely on it
A few habits keep your research grounded.
- Prefer recent data. Pay in some areas moved quickly over the last few years, and a figure from three years ago may mislead.
- Be wary of tiny samples. A single self-reported entry is an anecdote, not a range.
- Watch for title inflation and deflation. The same work is called different things at different companies.
- Separate what you found from what you wish were true. Research is for understanding the market, not for justifying a target.
Where this fits in your prep
Knowing the range early helps you decide whether to invest in a long process and lets you talk about money calmly when the topic comes up, without inventing competing offers or claiming a vague "market rate" you cannot back up. Treat the recruiter's stated range as another data point to reconcile with your own, not as a verdict, and treat your own figures the same way.
Continue your prep
Pair salary research with role-specific preparation: