Candidate rejects job offer after discovering HR lied about the 90k salary, HR insists the "company benefits” are worth it: ‘I can't afford to live on that wage’

Author image for Bar Mor Hazut
Bar Mor Hazut • Senior Editor
Jun 13, 2026 1:00 PM EDT

This company really thought that if they dragged a job candidate through multiple interviews and assignments, the candidate wouldn't care that the salary they offer is significantly lower than on the job posting.

It's a bizarre strategy, but it must be working for some companies if many still keep this up.

Here's how they do it: The company posts a job listing with a salary range that is appropriate for the role and the demands they're making, and they happily watch as the applications roll in. They interview hundreds of candidates, making them jump through hoops and go through countless interviews and assignments to prove their worth. They make people work so hard for a job they think they want.

Then comes the time to negotiate pay, which is when the company finally reveals the real salary they plan to offer to the one who "wins" the job, but that salary is significantly lower than what the company posted in that initial job posting. How can that be?

That is when the hiring manager starts jumping through hoops themselves in order to explain why they offer a salary that cannot compare to the one they proudly posted online. They say that the base pay doesn't include the benefits, and they add the health insurance and the unlimited snacks employees have in the office… They basically lie about every little detail to get the candidate to agree to something they never signed up for.

And after all these interviews and assignments, some employees might actually take the bait and accept the offer despite the insulting salary, exactly as the company planned in the first place.

Is that the case for the job candidate below? We wouldn't count on it. They shared on Reddit's r/jobs Subreddit how disappointed they were when this exact scenario happened to them, but they weren't quick to accept the job offer with the gaslighting base pay. They knew they could do so much better.

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