I never understood this myself and its exactly why i stopped applying internal. It's impossible to figure out if its worth the effort. The feedback on here is unclear. Say its 100K-200K. are we saying we should ask for 85% of 200K i.e. 170k? or are we saying the midpoint is 150K and we should ask for 85% of that. I assume this is just base and doesn't factor in bonus. The other thing is the regional pay can make a massive difference, 200K in SF is nothing, the street cleaners make that, 200K in Dallas though is pi-ping it. HR think's they're clever making it unclear and having these 20k-400K type pay bands but all they do is waste people time, have people like me just start applying external only, or if they do take it and find out HR cheated them, they leave.