New hires keep recreating the gap we closed. How do you control starting salaries?

Medical technology distributor in Texas, around 950 employees. Two years ago we spent 410,000 dollars correcting pay and brought the adjusted gap to under 1%. This year it is back to 2.3%, and when I trace it, almost all of the movement comes from 130 new hires. Men were hired on average at 101% of midpoint and women at 95%, in the same roles.

Hiring managers set the offer with the recruiter. There is a range, but no rule about where in it an offer should land, and negotiation is expected.

What controls have worked without slowing hiring to a crawl?