A new study has revealed which sectors of the UK are most and least transparent when it comes to advertising salaries for vacant posts.
Conducted by People Managing People, the study analysed over 4,000 LinkedIn job adverts across various sectors and found that more than half (53%) did not include salary details. The media and entertainment industry was the least transparent, with 84% of adverts omitting salary information, followed by the healthcare sector at 78%. Technology (74%) and finance (73%) sectors also scored poorly for salary transparency.
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Typically, junior roles in media and entertainment can start at low annual rates for pay from £15,000-£25,000 depending on status and days worked (according to career site Prospects).
David Rice, an HR expert at People Managing People, said many organisations in industries such as media and entertainment avoided disclosing pay because it would reveal how poorly many workers were compensated, despite perceptions of high wages in those sectors.
He said: “To keep people interested in ‘chasing the dragon’ of high wage punditry, it’s unlikely organisations in this sector will publicly disclose that a majority of people in the field are, let’s face it, going to struggle to pay their bills.”
The most transparent sectors included education, where only 12% did not disclose salary, and telecommunications (20%). Jobs in London were the least likely to include pay details (72%), followed by Edinburgh (54%) and Bristol (52%).
The lack of salary transparency has raised concerns about its impact on gender and racial pay gaps, with women earning – according to Statista figures – 7.7% less than men and ethnic minorities being paid 25% less than white workers on average – although these percentages are average and include roles that aren’t comparable.
Rice said the reason most businesses were reluctant to advertise pay rates was to save money. The effects of this saw women paid less than men for comparable work and people from ethnic minorities less than white people.
He added that a lack of pay transparency had saved businesses a lot of money. “But, businesses can save themselves time by attracting people who are interested in the job, and knowing what they’re paying for it. This saves time in the negotiation phase, it ensures better buy-in from new hires and when people feel fairly paid, they tend to be more invested and more productive.”
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