Now, a recruiter or sourcer can absolutely go out into the field and do market research to see if they are competitive with pay and benefits by talking with candidates and use that data to potentially influence and have the pay bands adjusted to meet market demands - but even this is not solely up to the recruiter and does not always happen.Īll this to say, there are a lot of different players involved when it comes to determining salary at an offer stage, not to mention the candidate's experience and specific requirements. The recruiters are then made aware, usually by finance and/or HR, of what the salary bands are at the kick-off of a search. They will also look at several other factors, such as what current employees are making at that level, to preserve internal equity. Typically, from my experience, pay bands (salary ranges) are set by the finance team, in collaboration with HR and leadership (you know, budgets and all) by using a number of resources, for example, reports that tell them what the market value for each role in different areas is. If you work somewhere and the recruiter sets the salary bands and decides what to offer, please let me know. In all of my experience, I have never seen a recruiter set a salary range, let alone have the final say in an offer. 'The recruiter lowballed me in my offer.'
