Mandating that employers disclose salary ranges in their job postings makes some sense, I suppose. The goal of salary-disclosure legislation now on Beacon Hill: to reduce income inequities for women and people of color, who advocates say tend to underestimate their asking salaries, as the Globe reports. OK. 

But what if the salary ranges are ridiculous to the point of meaninglessness? Example: I just saw a posting for a full-time job on LinkedIn with a pay range of $40K to $160K. That’s a big range. So big as to be a joke. And that’s what employers are going to do: provide big, fat meaningless pay ranges. No wonder business groups like this bill.