Range Spread by Job Family: Defaults for Every Role Type

Why One Spread Percentage Does Not Fit Every Role

You have built your salary midpoints — anchored to BLS OEWS national or metro figures, adjusted for geography, and mapped to each role's SOC code. Now you need to set the width of each band. That width is the range spread: the percentage by which the maximum exceeds the minimum, expressed as a share of the minimum. A band with a $60,000 minimum and an $84,000 maximum has a spread of 40% ($24,000 ÷ $60,000).

If you apply the same spread across every role in your organization, the result is a structure that is simultaneously too wide for administrative roles and too narrow for executive ones. Administrative and entry-level roles have limited career-growth room within a single title; a 90% spread creates a pay band so wide it becomes meaningless as a control. An executive role, by contrast, carries wide variation in scope, accountability, and market value that a 40% band cannot contain without forcing premature promotions or out-of-band offers.

The practical solution — the one most compensation practitioners use — is to vary the spread by job family (the grouping of roles by function and organizational level: administrative, operations/support, professional/technical, managerial, director, and executive). This article walks through a set of default spread percentages for each family, explains the reasoning behind each, and shows you how to apply them to real wage anchors. By the end, you will have a working framework you can apply to your next range-build cycle — and a sense of when to widen or tighten from the default.

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The Core Concept: Range Spread, Midpoint, and Band Width

Before the defaults, a brief vocabulary grounding — because these terms appear on every state pay-transparency form, in every attorney's document request, and in every HR audit.

• Range spread — how wide a band is, expressed as a percentage of the minimum: (Maximum − Minimum) ÷ Minimum × 100. A 50% spread on a $70,000 minimum produces a $105,000 maximum.
• Midpoint — the center of the band; conventionally set at the market median (the 50th percentile wage — the figure below which half of workers in that occupation and geography earn). The midpoint is your anchor; the spread determines how far the band extends on either side.
• Market median — the 50th percentile wage from a source such as the BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) program. The BLS OEWS program produces wage estimates for over 800 occupations, built from a sample of approximately 1.1 million establishments (BLS, May 2025).
• Compa-ratio — an individual employee's actual salary divided by the band midpoint. A compa-ratio below 1.0 means the employee earns below midpoint; above 1.0, above midpoint. Range spread directly controls the compa-ratio room available within a band.
• Range penetration — where an employee sits within the full width of the band, expressed as a percentage: (Salary − Minimum) ÷ (Maximum − Minimum). A newly hired employee at the band minimum has 0% penetration; an employee at the maximum has 100%.

If any of these terms is new, the Salary Range Methodology resource hub has plain-English primers on each, including a deeper treatment of how to build a salary range from a BLS OEWS anchor through to a posted band.

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Range Spread by Job Family: A Default Framework

The table below represents practical defaults used across SMB compensation structures. They are not mandated by any regulation — they are a starting framework you calibrate to your organization. Each family is described with the reasoning behind its width.

Job Family	Default Spread	Minimum (example)	Maximum (example at default)
Administrative / Entry-Level	40%	$45,000	$63,000
Operations / Support	40–50%	$55,000	$77,000–$82,500
Professional / Technical	50–60%	$75,000	$112,500–$120,000
Manager	60–70%	$90,000	$144,000–$153,000
Director	70–80%	$110,000	$187,000–$198,000
Executive / C-Suite	80–100%	$150,000	$270,000–$300,000

Examples are illustrative. Set your minimum by subtracting roughly half the spread from your market midpoint, then solve for maximum. Always anchor midpoints to a current BLS OEWS figure for the relevant SOC code and geography.

Administrative and Entry-Level Roles — 40% Spread

Administrative, clerical, and entry-level roles have a narrow skill ceiling within a single title. The work is largely procedural; proficiency is reached relatively quickly; career progression is typically a promotion to the next title rather than continued growth inside the same band.

A 40% spread accommodates the difference between a new hire who meets minimum qualifications and a long-tenured employee who has maximized their contribution in that title. It also keeps the band tight enough that a manager cannot use the range to rationalize a pay decision that should instead be a formal promotion.

For context: BLS OEWS data shows customer service representatives (SOC 43-4051) earning a national median of $20.59 per hour and a 10th-percentile wage of $14.75 per hour — a difference of about 40% from the 10th percentile to the median alone (BLS OOH, May 2024). That spread in the market itself signals that a 40% band is appropriate for entry-level roles — it covers the realistic range of demonstrated competency, not an aspirational one.

Confirm the current BLS OEWS figures for your specific SOC code and geography at bls.gov/oes before anchoring your band.

Operations and Support Roles — 40–50% Spread

Operations coordinators, office managers, logistics coordinators, and similar roles sit above purely procedural work but below the full scope accountability of professional or technical roles. They have more headroom for within-title growth — process ownership, cross-functional coordination, informal leadership — but not enough to justify the wider bands used for technical specialists.

A 40–50% spread gives employees and managers room to reflect genuine capability growth without a band so wide it loses its signal. Use 40% for roles closer to the administrative end of the family; move toward 50% for roles with meaningful decision-making authority or budget oversight.

Professional and Technical Roles — 50–60% Spread

This is the broadest job family in most SMB organizations: accountants, engineers, software developers, marketing specialists, HR generalists, project managers, analysts. These roles have deep within-title growth paths — a Staff Accountant and a Senior Accountant may carry the same title in a small organization, with substantially different scope.

For reference: BLS OEWS data shows accountants and auditors (SOC 13-2011) at a national median of $81,680, with the 10th percentile at $52,780 and the 90th at $141,420 (BLS OOH, May 2024). That 90th-to-10th spread — roughly 168% — reflects decades of career depth across the whole occupation. Inside a single job family band, 50–60% captures a defensible slice of that curve for a defined level.

Software developers (SOC 15-1252) show similar depth: national median $133,080, 10th percentile $79,850, 90th percentile $211,450 (BLS OOH, May 2024). When you use these figures, name the dataset, the SOC code, and the reference year — and point readers to bls.gov/oes to confirm the current release.

A 50% spread is appropriate for a well-defined professional level with clear competency expectations. Move toward 60% if the title spans more than one visible performance tier or if market rates for the role show high geographic variance. See how midpoints anchor these calculations for the arithmetic.

Manager Roles — 60–70% Spread

People managers introduce a variable that individual contributors do not carry: the scope of the function they oversee. A Marketing Manager running a one-person team and a Marketing Manager running a five-person team with a significant external agency budget are nominally the same title; their market value differs meaningfully.

HR managers (SOC 11-3121) illustrate the range: national median $140,030, 10th percentile $83,790, 90th percentile $239,200 (BLS top-code) (BLS OOH, May 2024). The distance from the 10th to the 50th percentile alone — roughly 67% — suggests that a 60–70% band is a reasonable within-level slice.

At 60–70%, you accommodate a new manager who is still developing their team-leadership skills at the lower end and a seasoned manager with a demonstrably larger scope at the top, without the band becoming a substitute for a promotion to Director.

This is also where the distinction between salary bands and salary grades matters operationally: a well-designed grade structure ensures that the top of the Manager band overlaps appropriately with the bottom of the Director band — typically 15–25% overlap.

Director Roles — 70–80% Spread

Director-level roles carry P&L ownership, cross-functional authority, and significant market-rate variance by sector and geography. A Director of Engineering at a software company and a Director of Operations at a regional services firm may share a title convention but carry meaningfully different market benchmarks.

General and operations managers (SOC 11-1021) — the BLS occupational anchor closest to a Director-level operations role — show a national median of $102,950 (BLS OOH, May 2024). Senior director and VP-adjacent roles for which separate BLS benchmarks do not exist should be anchored to the closest available SOC code and adjusted upward with a documented rationale, rather than left unanchored.

A 70–80% spread accommodates the scope variation inherent in Director roles while preserving a visible break point between Director and Executive compensation. Use 70% when the Director role has a clearly bounded function; move toward 80% when the role has broad cross-functional authority or carries quota/revenue responsibility.

Executive and C-Suite Roles — 80–100% Spread

Executive roles — CEO, COO, CFO, CTO, and equivalents — carry the widest legitimate variation in market value of any job family. Organizational size, sector, stage of growth, revenue complexity, and board expectations all affect what a particular executive role commands in the market. A 40% band around a CEO midpoint would be structurally incoherent for this family.

BLS OOH data shows chief executives at a national median of $206,420 and general and operations managers at $102,950 (BLS OOH, May 2024) — two data points that bracket a wide spectrum. An 80–100% spread creates the room to:

• Anchor a newly promoted internal executive close to the band minimum with a clear path
• Offer market-competitive packages to experienced external candidates near the midpoint or above
• Retain high-performing executives who would otherwise face the ceiling that a narrow band creates

At 100% spread, the maximum is literally double the minimum. That is intentional for executive roles — the scope difference between the minimum-qualified and the maximum-performing occupant of a C-suite title can be that large.

For pay-transparency purposes: if your jurisdiction requires a posted range, an 80–100% spread for an executive role is wide but defensible — as long as you document the methodology (the BLS OEWS or Statistics Canada anchor, the spread rationale, the geographic adjustment applied). A range without a documented rationale is the one that draws scrutiny. Learn more about building that documentation foundation in our job-leveling guide for SMBs.

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Applying the Defaults: A Worked Example

Assume you are building a band for a Staff Accountant (SOC 13-2011) in the professional/technical family, anchored to the national BLS OEWS median of $81,680 (BLS OOH, May 2024). You choose a 50% spread.

Step 1 — Set the midpoint. Your midpoint is $81,680 (the market median for the geography and SOC code you have selected).

Step 2 — Solve for minimum. At a 50% spread, the formula is: Minimum = Midpoint ÷ (1 + Spread/2) = $81,680 ÷ 1.25 = $65,344

Step 3 — Solve for maximum. Maximum = Minimum × 1.50 = $65,344 × 1.50 = $98,016

Step 4 — Round and document. Posted range: $65,000–$98,000, spread 50.8%, anchored to BLS OEWS SOC 13-2011, national, May 2024 release.

This is a teaching example — the arithmetic works, but your actual midpoint should come from the BLS OEWS figure for your specific geography, not the national median, unless your workforce genuinely skews national. Confirm the live figure at bls.gov/oes.

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When to Widen or Tighten from the Default

Defaults are a starting point, not a constraint. Three situations commonly call for an adjustment:

Widen when a role has unusually high external market variance (a specialized technical role where the 10th-to-90th-percentile BLS spread is 100%+), when the title spans more than one performance tier without a formal grade distinction, or when a retention risk makes a tight band operationally untenable.

Tighten when a role has a narrow, well-defined competency ceiling (credentialed roles where the market itself shows limited spread), when your organization has a separate leveling structure that creates natural breaks between titles, or when a wide band in a low-growth role creates expectations the role cannot fulfill.

Document the reason for every departure from the default. That documentation — the SOC code, the BLS OEWS anchor, the spread rationale, the effective date — is what you send to employment counsel if a range is ever questioned.

For a deeper treatment of when and how to depart from standard band structures, the salary bands vs. salary grades guide walks through grade overlap, broadbanding, and step structures.

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Build Your Range Spreads in One Workbook

The framework above is practical starting material, but applying it to ten or twenty roles — with BLS anchors, geographic adjustments, and documented rationale — takes time in a blank spreadsheet.

The Salary Range Builder Workbook gives you a pre-structured Excel template with built-in spread calculations by job family, midpoint-to-min/max formulas, and a documentation tab you can share with counsel or drop into an HR audit response. It is the fastest path from "I need to build ranges" to a defensible, posted band.

Download the Salary Range Builder Workbook →