Marketplace All-in-One A word to the wise for air travelers
Mar 20, 2026
Alice Lee, an organizational behavior professor at Cornell, explains how salary range formats shape applicants’ negotiation choices. Henry Epp, a transportation reporter, describes growing TSA staffing shortages and longer airport security lines during the partial government shutdown. They discuss pay-range transparency, gendered effects, and practical fixes in short, lively segments.
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Real Job Listing With Huge Pay Range
- An Indeed job listed a pay range from $130,000 to nearly $500,000, illustrating extreme width.
- That real-world posting motivated the Cornell study on how range width affects applicants.
Wide Salary Ranges Create Ambiguity
- Wide posted salary ranges increase ambiguity and push risk-averse applicants toward narrow-range jobs.
- Cornell research found women preferentially apply to narrow ranges and then accept average offers more often.
Risk Aversion Drives Range Preference
- Risk aversion shapes application preferences beyond gender labels.
- Alice Lee notes general financial uncertainty aversion drives preference for narrow ranges, not just women's choices.