UK plans law requiring salaries in job adverts

The UK government announced on 5 November that it plans to require employers to include salary information in job adverts, a change intended to let people see pay before applying. The proposal is not yet law: the government says it will bring legislation forward as soon as possible, and is urging businesses to publish salaries now, according to gov.uk and BBC News.

Why the government wants pay shown upfront

The government says the requirement would help jobseekers, particularly young people applying for their first jobs, know what a role pays before they apply. It also argues that greater openness could help address pay inequalities by making unjustified differences easier to identify and giving workers more confidence to challenge discrimination. Those are the government’s stated aims; the announcement does not establish that the proposal will achieve them.

The Cabinet Office launched the consultation on pay and reducing discrimination during the summer, BBC News reported. The proposal resembles European Union rules under which employers must disclose an initial salary or range in a job advert or before an interview, the BBC said.

What employers and applicants say about pay

CIPD chief executive Neil Carberry told the BBC that giving salary details is positive in principle, but that setting pay can depend on a candidate’s skills, experience and potential. He argued that writing job adverts is better left to employer practice than government regulation. The BBC also reported that, according to UK jobs site Adzuna, 51% of adverts on its site included salary information in September, and that the share had been falling. That figure describes Adzuna’s adverts, not the whole UK jobs market.

The proposal would add to existing debate over what pay information workers can access. UK employers may currently ask applicants what they earn, but applicants are not obliged to answer, the BBC reported. The Equality and Human Rights Commission said the previous week that publishing salaries in adverts would be a positive step. It also called for employers to answer questionnaires about colleagues’ pay and to be prevented from asking applicants about their current salary, according to the BBC.

Details of the proposed salary law are still to come

The government says it will set out later which employers and adverts the requirement will cover, what salary information must appear, and how implementation and enforcement will work. It has not given an implementation date. Until legislation is brought forward and those details are set out, employers are being asked to publish pay voluntarily.