Compensation band
Also called pay band, salary band.
The internal minimum-to-maximum salary an employer has approved for a given level and location, from which every offer at that level is drawn.
A band is the employer's real constraint, and it's narrower than the posted range. It's set per level and usually per geography, and a recruiter genuinely cannot exceed it without an exception approval that requires a reason and a signature. Knowing that reframes a negotiation: pushing past the band's ceiling almost never works, while moving from the 40th to the 75th percentile inside it routinely does.
Bands are also why internal equity comes up. If your ask would place you above people already in the same role, that's a real objection rather than a tactic — and it's frequently resolvable through the components that sit outside the band, like a signing bonus or an equity refresh.
The other lever is the level itself. When the band is the obstacle, the productive question is whether the role could be opened at the next level up, which moves you to a different band entirely.
Salary range
The published minimum and maximum for a role — increasingly required by law, and usually wider than the band the employer will actually use.
Job level
An employer's internal grade for a role, which sets the salary band, the scope expected, and often the interview bar — and which doesn't transfer between companies.
Total compensation
Everything an offer is worth in a year — base salary plus bonus, equity, and benefits — rather than the headline salary alone.