There’s some details I’m not privy to or shouldn’t share, but I can freely talk about my own pay as well as what people have told me about their pay.

When they announced the changes, my next pay statement looked like a typical year except that there was now room for the small bump to my base pay (a couple of %) brought it above the old cap. I don’t yet know the details of my comp for the next year (comp year is April-April) but I do know it’s also incremental. Obviously due to them previously publicly announcing pay scale changes, HR and management had to have conversations with current employees clarifying that our pay wouldn’t be changed more than the typical incremental bumps. We were led to believe that our pay would be increasing more significantly this year, which isn’t happening.

I also know, secondhand, that many new hires at my same level with far less experience are getting offers that are easily 1.5x or more what I’m making.

I don’t know if they have two scales like you suggested or if they just broadened the band significantly, or if they were regularly getting exceptions for new hire comp above the band for the position.