can I still negotiate the salary after the job posting

Negotiation remains possible, even after a salary range in the job posting

Yes, you can still negotiate your salary after the job posting, even if it already contained an amount or range. The rules on pay transparency determine what an employer must disclose in advance, not that the final salary is thereby fixed. A job applicant and employer can therefore still discuss experience, specific skills or other factors that lead to a higher or lower amount within or around the stated range.

What matters is that the job posting or the preliminary conversation provides a realistic starting point, not an amount that makes no sense afterwards. If a salary range instead of an exact salary is stated, the intention is that there is genuine negotiation within that range, not that the range is a formality while the actual offer falls far outside it. Negotiation itself therefore remains possible, but the opening of the conversation is already considerably more transparent than before due to the information shared earlier. Whether a job applicant can also raise that conversation themselves is related to the question whether a job applicant may ask about the compensation level before the interview — that early information is precisely intended to enable negotiation on more equal terms.

What Article 5 of the Directive regulates

Article 5 of Directive (EU) 2023/970 requires employers to inform job applicants in advance about the initial compensation or the range thereof, so that a job interview can take place on the basis of informed and transparent negotiations on compensation. The Directive thereby regulates the provision of information prior to the interview, not a ban on negotiation itself. The aim is that job applicants do not negotiate in the dark, which in turn relates to the question whether a salary must be included in the job posting in the first place.