The proportion of UK job ads that include salary information has slipped to a seven-year low as employers ignore calls for pay transparency as a method of reducing the gender pay gap.
Job search engine Adzuna analysed 80 million UK job ads posted between 2016 and April 2023 to highlight the sectors and regions that are the most and least transparent about pay.
Despite Adzuna data showing that job ads with a salary receive six times more applications, just 51.5% of UK job ads disclosed an intended salary or salary range in April 2023, significantly lower than 61.4% a year ago.
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Retail is the most secretive sector, with just 26.8% of jobs including salary information in April 2023, falling 14 percentage points from 40.8% a year ago. The next most secretive are in the scientific sector (29.3%) and creative and design (31.1%).
Voluntary jobs are most likely to include pay information, with 84.3% of ads disclosing salary in April 2023, followed by social work roles (72.9%) and logistics and warehouse positions (70.9%).
Almost every industry sector recorded worse salary transparency last month compared to a year ago. Only the legal sector showed an improvement in pay transparency compared to 2022, with a 4.6 percentage point increase to 51.9% in April 2023.
Andrew Hunter, co-founder of Adzuna, said: “Compared to last year, the power in the jobs market has shifted back to companies and we are seeing fewer job ads disclosing the salary as employers find it easier to fill positions. Against the context of a slower economy, this may also reflect a growing pressure to keep to tight budgets, but falling pay transparency comes with a very real societal cost – making pay gaps worse.”
He added that the UK may be falling behind globally, with major cities such as New York introducing legislation making it law for employers to include salary information on jobs ads. In the EU, the European Council last month adopted new rules on pay transparency, which aim to combat pay discrimination and help close the gender pay gap.
Under the EU Pay Transparency Directive, companies will be required to share information about how much they pay women and men for work of equal value and take action if their gender pay gap exceeds 5%.
The new directive also includes provisions on compensation for victims of pay discrimination and penalties, including fines, for employers who break the rules.
“As well as making the job-hunting process less stressful and less time-consuming for jobseekers, salary transparency is a crucial step towards eliminating pay gaps in the jobs market,” said Hunter.
“By setting clear salary brackets for a role, jobseekers know the fair pay rate and whether it’s worth their time applying. For employers, including the salary on a job ad leads to six times more applications, so it’s a win-win situation.”
The West Midlands had the best salary transparency in April 2023, with 55.6% of job ads including pay information. By comparison, only 29.5% of job ads in Northern Ireland featured salaries, the lowest of any region, followed by Scotland (41.7%), Wales (47.0%) and London (49.7%).
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Last year, the Government Equalities Office (GEO) announced a pilot to improve pay transparency, with the government claiming that listing a salary range on a job ad provides a firmer footing for women to negotiate pay.
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