> you're missing that major markets within the US just started mandating salaries to be disclosed

They post a range, not an exact salary. It's much less useful as it spans entry / mid all the way to staff+.

> prior information posted on "what salary does <job title> make" websites was just wrong

levels.fyi is pretty accurate.

yes, in which case the parent poster shouldn't have been confused about salaries at all, aside from not looking.

there is a major deficiency in Levels data, as they accept a combination of offer letters, W-2's and Yearly Compensation Statements. So for positions with heavy share based compensation combined with market volatility, the W-2's and can be wildly different than an offer letter. This winds up wasting everyone's times, inflated expectation from every starry eyed employee, and bad data in general. There isn't enough data to smooth that out, for most positions or time frames.