Salary transparency is important for creating a healthier work culture, as employees know what salary is on offer and how it benchmarks against their colleagues.

Without salary disclosure, it makes applying for and accepting jobs so much harder – how do you know if it’s going to be enough to live on? How do you know if your colleague is being paid double for the same work? How do you know if you’re being discriminated against?

The main reasons companies don’t include salaries in job ads

There are many reasons why a company won’t include salary in job ads – but none of them make it any less frustrating when you’re looking for, and applying to, the roles. One of the main reasons companies don’t include it is to entice people that may have otherwise not seen it. This means you can have much higher qualified people applying for the role, alongside junior and newly educated candidates. You may think that this would just make life harder for the recruiter, however by finding out the candidate’s level of skills and their expectations of remote working or a specific location, companies are able to benchmark the salary expectations of a role to an individual. The salary for the same position for a candidate working in a large city may be much larger than a candidate working remotely in the suburbs.

Job title, the company’s reputation, and the candidate’s ability to negotiate depending on experience (DOE) means human resources departments can change the salary and benefits packages offered to each candidate. This also means that companies can look at hiring someone junior at a lower salary, usually someone newly out of education, and spend more resources on training and support for them to grow into the role.

Not disclosing salary in a public forum also means companies can avoid industry wars with competitors. If a company knows the salary range of a competitor for similar positions, it can be easy to advertise at a higher rate and make sure they are the company getting the best talent.

Why should companies share salaries in job ads?

Your salary at the beginning of your working life has been shown to have a long impact on your future earnings, especially for women. So, making sure you’re advocating for yourself and getting the salary you deserve is so important. Looking for jobs with companies that disclose salary makes understanding what you’re getting from the outset so much easier.

A disclosed salary also helps bring awareness to bias and pay inequality within organisations. When salary is no longer a secret, staff can talk about their pay without it feeling like a taboo conversation. Women earn just over 15% less than their male counterparts in the UK, and the mean pay gap for BAME workers is 26.4% . Transparency can begin to create equal expectations, so we can start to achieve pay parity.

Women are less likely than men to apply for a job that they aren’t qualified for and less likely to negotiate pay. So if a salary isn’t advertised, they could be asking for well below what an employer is happy to pay. If employers want to encourage more equity, they must share salaries.

What should you do if you don’t know how much you should be earning?

Make sure you do your research before you even apply for the job. Thinking about salary should start at the beginning of the job application process, and not during the interview stage when you’ve already put in a lot of time.

Using the ValueMyCV tool is a great first step to figuring out what the value of your CV is, so you can start to benchmark against job vacancies. If the calculator is below your expectations, think about how you can change the wording of your CV to showcase your skills and experience. Then put it through again.

Similarly, when using Adzuna to search for a role, always look on the left-hand side for the average salary. This allows you to see what wage you should be expecting based on geography, as well as other statistics such as how much salaries have gone up year on year, the top companies hiring in the area and what industries currently have the most live job ads.

Doing this research means you’ll get a benchmark range to start the discussion from when they do come up – and it’s important that it is a range. Never put a specific number down first. The first conversation about salary is just that – a discussion, and not a negotiation. Negotiations will come further down the line when they are seriously considering offering you the job.

Before applying to a role that has not disclosed a salary range, ask the employer where they are at. You could open this with a question such as "I am currently looking for a role in the salary bracket of X to Y, is there scope for this role to fall within this bracket?” Rather than spend time on applications, tailoring your CV, and potentially interviewing for a role, do what you can to find out the salary range.

If the salary offer is lower than you were expecting and what you’re worth, be honest! It’s up to you whether you continue. Perhaps it’s a really great role in an industry you’d like to transition into. In this case, ask questions about bonuses, salary reviews, and promotion potential. You can also suggest that you would be open to an alternative benefits package such as entering a company’s share scheme – remember that salary isn’t the only form of compensation for a role!

Are companies legally required to disclose salaries?

There is currently no law in the UK that requires organisations to disclose the salary of jobs

There have been some efforts to encourage organisations to be transparent about how much they pay their employees. On International Women’s Day 2022, the government launched a pilot scheme on pay transparency to help close the gender pay gap. As well as reporting on the current salary of employees, the pilot scheme asks qualifying companies to list salary details in their job ads and to stop asking about salary history during the recruitment stage.

However, the scheme is voluntary, so not targeting the organisations avoiding this conversation and that are lacking transparency the most.

Under the Equality Act 2010, pay secrecy (prohibiting employees from discussing their pay with others, even with a signed employment contract) cannot be legally enforced as long as the employee was discussing their pay to find out whether they were being paid differently to a colleague, on the grounds of discrimination.

Which companies show salaries in job postings?

50% of UK Employers do not advertise salary in job ads , so it can be hard to figure out which companies are going to have your back when it comes to salary transparency.

Wholefoods, an upscale food shop with headquarters in the US, has been publicly declaring the salaries of all its employees since the 1980s. With a more recent move from Buffer, the tech start-up with employees around the world, including the UK, publishing all their employee’s salaries as a move to be more transparent about their work culture.

How to show you care about the role and not only the money

Asking about salary before you start the interview process may feel daunting, and you may get some negative responses – but if you do, then that probably wouldn’t have been a supportive organisation to work for. By asking the question, you’re showing that you know and understand your worth and that you also don’t want to waste anyone’s time.

Your CV and cover letter are the places for you to show your passion for the role you’re applying for, going into detail about why you love the industry, the role and what you see for yourself in the future if you were able to stay and develop with them. Showing a company that you’re keen to learn but also share your passion and expertise with them is what they’re looking for and if you make it to the interview stage then this is where you can prove it.

You now have the tools to understand your first steps when it comes to valuing your CV and understanding how to work out what salary you should be aiming for. If you’re ready for a new job, or you’re interested to see if you’re currently being paid fairly, you can use our ValueMyCV tool here.

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