What is a salary band?
Without bands, every salary is a separate negotiation, and two people doing the same job can end up far apart for reasons nobody remembers.
Minimum, midpoint and maximum
- The minimum is the lowest pay for someone who can already do the job, typically a new hire with the basic skills.
- The midpoint is the reference value for a person who fully meets the role. It is often set with an eye on what the local market pays for similar work.
- The maximum is the ceiling. Someone who reaches it grows further through promotion to the next band, not through endless raises in the same role.
Two numbers help to read a band. The range spread is the maximum divided by the minimum, minus one; a spread of 30–50% is common for many roles. The compa-ratio is a person's salary divided by the midpoint: 1.0 means paid at the midpoint, 0.9 means 10% below it.
An example band (illustrative numbers)
A store manager band runs from 2,000 to 2,800 EUR a month. The midpoint is 2,400 EUR and the spread is 40%. A new manager starts at 2,100 EUR, a compa-ratio of about 0.88. After a year of solid results the salary moves to 2,300 EUR. Once someone is close to 2,800 EUR, the next step is a larger store or an area role with its own band.
Salary bands and pay transparency
Bands are increasingly also a legal topic. The EU Pay Transparency Directive requires employers to tell applicants the starting pay or its range and asks for pay structures based on objective, gender-neutral criteria. Member states had to bring it into national law by June 2026, and the details differ from country to country, so check the rules where you hire.
Salary bands in OrgLines
In OrgLines HR each position can carry a salary band with a lower and an upper limit in whole currency units; the upper limit cannot be lower than the lower one, and an empty band means none is set. Vacancies build on positions. The band of a vacancy is deliberately never shown on the public careers page, so if your local rules require you to state a range to applicants, put it into the public vacancy text or tell candidates directly. Inside the workspace, bands are visible only to people whose HR role gives access to salaries, and each time someone opens them, it is recorded in the access journal.