Treat every number in a shared job advertisement as a description of the advertised role, not of the person who posted or shared it. Identify what the figure labels (employer-provided pay or an estimate), the currency, the pay period and whether it is a range, a starting figure or a ceiling. Write those four attributes beside the number. If the label, unit or source is missing or ambiguous, record that limit and stop rather than guessing anyone's pay.
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Start by giving each figure a subject
A shared job screenshot usually contains at least two different subjects: the role being advertised and the person who posted, forwarded or appears near it. Your first job is to keep them apart. Ask which line the number sits on and what word introduces it. If the figure appears in the job details next to a title, it belongs to that open role. If it appears in a profile caption, a comment or a message from the sharer, it is not evidence about the vacancy at all. Write the number with its subject attached, such as 'advertised range for this role', and never as 'what this person earns'. This keeps the number provenance intact before you interpret anything. [Indeed: employer pay and estimates]
Read the label: employer-provided pay or estimate
Job pay displays can carry different labels. An employer-provided salary describes the hiring company's budget for the role. An estimate, by contrast, is algorithmic and derived from similar roles and locations when no employer figure is supplied. These are not the same kind of claim, so copy the label exactly as shown. An estimate may not reflect specialized skills, benefits or regional demand, which means two screenshots of similar vacancies can differ without either being wrong. Neither an employer range nor an estimate establishes what an existing employee actually takes home. If the label is cut off or unreadable, mark it unknown rather than choosing the more flattering interpretation. [Indeed: employer pay and estimates]
Preserve currency, period and range qualifiers
The same digits mean different things with a different currency or period. Job pay can appear as an exact amount, a range, a starting amount or an upper limit, each with a currency and a pay period. Copy all of these qualifiers onto your worksheet instead of collapsing them into one annual figure. Tips and bonuses may be listed separately from the wage, so keep them in their own row rather than adding them into the base number. A ceiling is not a promise and a floor is not an average. Where the period is hourly, monthly or annual, keep that unit visible next to the amount so a later reader cannot silently convert it. [Indeed: pay formatting and ranges]
Use a small provenance worksheet
The table below is an editorial reader aid, not a feature of any app. Copy it by hand or into your own notes. Its purpose is to force the observation, its limit and your next step into separate columns so a guess cannot slide into the record.
| observation | limit | next step |
|---|---|---|
| Range shown beside the job title | Relates to the advertised role only | Record as 'advertised range for this role', not personal pay |
| Label reads 'estimated' | Algorithmic, based on similar roles and locations | Note that specialized skills and benefits are not reflected |
| Figure has no visible period | Unit is unclear | Mark unknown and avoid any annualized comparison |
| Number appears in the sharer's caption | Not the vacancy's pay field | Exclude it from the role record entirely |
Stop where the source fails
Some screenshots cannot support even a role-level reading. If the pay field is absent, the image is private or partially shared, the title is mismatched to the figure, or the label is ambiguous, record that precise limit. Write something like 'pay field not visible in shared image' and stop there. Do not fill the gap with a plausible number, a similar job found elsewhere or an assumption about the poster. Do not attempt to access private records or identify anyone to resolve the ambiguity. A recorded limit is a valid result and is more useful than a confident guess, because it tells the next reader exactly what the artifact does and does not show. [Indeed: employer pay and estimates]
Keep the figure away from judgments about people
A vacancy budget says what a company is willing to offer for a role. It does not describe the poster's income, wealth or lifestyle, and it does not describe anyone with a similar job title. Avoid sentences that convert the number into a statement about a person, including implied ones such as 'this explains their choices'. If you later compare two screenshots, compare the roles and their labels, not the people who shared them. Where an AI-assisted public-profile summary appears in your own research, keep explicit public claims separate from unsupported inferences and drop any inference that assigns a private income figure. The limit is built into the source itself, not merely a style preference. [Indeed: employer pay and estimates]
A couple more questions
The job screenshot shows a range and the person who shared it says 'this is what I make'. Which do I record?
Record the range as the advertised figure for the role, with its label, currency and period. The sharer's statement is a separate, unverified claim about themselves and is not evidence of the vacancy's budget. Keep the two in separate rows and do not merge them.
How do I tell an employer figure from an estimate in a shared screenshot?
Look for the label next to the amount. Employer-provided pay describes the hiring company's budget; an estimate is algorithmic and based on similar roles and locations when no employer figure is given. Copy the wording exactly, and if it is unreadable, mark the label unknown.
The pay figure has no currency or period. Can I still compare it with another vacancy?
Not reliably. Without a currency and pay period the unit is unclear, so mark it unknown and avoid annualized or cross-vacancy comparisons. Record what the image does show and note the missing qualifiers as a limit.
Sources & editorial notes
Official references checked on October 24, 2026. Checklists, comparison tables and example wording are DateClues editorial tools, not official tests or validated risk scores.
General information. No guide or tool can certify a person’s identity, intentions or safety. Read our editorial standards.