[danijelb]

I wasn't an employer but I'm genuinely curious how is it possible that a company doesn't know what they are willing to pay for an employee of specific knowledge? They maybe don't have formal hiring budgets, but they know how much money they have, if some investments are coming, how much they pay other people on average, etc. Also, they obviously know the amount of money they are not willing to go over during the negotiation phase of the interview.

If they are looking for some super specific and rare skill, why not make a separate ad for that rare position? In that case if they are ready to pay 5x the market rate, they can put that in the salary range without influencing ranges of "normal" positions.