You talk about a bureaucratic web, but this is really just about posting a pay range, which is entirely reasonable. Job applicants don't want to spend hours, sometimes even days, on a job application process only to discover at the very end that the pay is way too low for them to realistically consider. It's easy information to share upfront, and can save both parties a lot of time and effort.

Now if you don't want to hire from CA because people expect too high salary, then posting this salary range upfront will actually accomplish exactly what you need: people for whom the pay is too low will not respond and not waste your time.

> In effect, this is The State attempting to Price Fix around jobs-of-a-feather. No matter the intention, this is not The States business.

This has nothing to do with price fixing. You can still decide your own pay range. It's just for transparency.

> The only possible purpose of making laws like this is so that the state can try to enforce some remedy whereby we're told how much we have to or are allowed to pay someone.

No, the only purpose of laws like this is to increase transparency and thereby make the labor market more a free market. I really don't understand your concern here.