Sounds like HR at those companies has no clue what they are doing. I work for a Fortune 100 company. Everyone has a very specific job title and everyone with the same job title is guaranteed to make the exact same amount as anyone else with the same job title. They have a third party company come in and do a review yearly to make sure that is the case. We are not able to create new job titles without a lot of work. So, we always know exactly what the salary will be for anyone we are trying to hire.