The UK government is urging businesses to voluntarily publish salaries in job adverts now, rather than wait for new legislation that will make the practice compulsory. The government said it plans to bring forward legislation "as soon as possible" to require pay details in adverts. The move aims to help jobseekers, particularly those applying for their first job, and could help prevent pay discrimination, the government said.
The Cabinet Office launched a consultation into pay and reducing discrimination in the summer, and the government said there had been "overwhelming support" for greater transparency, with 94% of respondents backing the move. Deputy Prime Minister Andy Burnham said: "Whether you're a young person starting out or a parent trying to support your family, you should know what a job pays before spending your time and effort applying for it." Publishing salary details upfront could "expose unjustified differences in pay, give workers greater confidence to challenge discrimination and prevent disagreements over pay escalating into disputes", the government said.
The proposal comes a week after the Equality and Human Rights Commission said employees should legally be able to find out what their colleagues are earning. The commission called publishing salaries in job adverts a "positive step" and said bosses should be required to respond to questionnaires about colleagues' pay to cut pay discrimination. The commission also recommended that employers should be prevented from asking about current salary when offering a job to stop a history of discrimination from continuing.
According to data from UK jobs website Adzuna, 51% of adverts on its site in September had salary information, but the proportion has been falling in recent years. Adzuna co-founder Andrew Hunter said being open about pay "should be the norm, not the exception", adding that employers who put a salary on a job advert "attract more applicants, and better-suited ones". However, the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, an industry body for human resources managers, cautioned that setting pay was complex. CIPD chief executive Neil Carberry said that while giving salary details was "a good thing" in principle, "there isn't always a single fixed figure, and employers will want to set pay based on a candidate's skills, experience and potential." He said the process was best "left to good employer practice rather than government regulation".
The government said the move was part of attempts to reduce the nearly one million young people not in education, employment or training ahead of the final report of the Milburn Review into youth inactivity, which is due in the coming weeks. The proposals are similar to measures being introduced in the European Union, where employers will have to disclose the initial pay or range for new roles in published job adverts or before an interview. The government said it will set out further details on what information will be required and how the legislation will be enforced "in due course".