Prime Minister Andy Burnham says the government will bring forward legislation making salary disclosure in job adverts a legal requirement, urging firms to act voluntarily in the meantime.
The UK government plans to make it a legal requirement for all employers to include salary information in job adverts, Prime Minister Andy Burnham has said. The government will bring forward legislation “as soon as possible,” though no timetable or enforcement details have been confirmed.
Under the “say what you pay” plan, employers would have to state pay in job adverts. Ministers have not yet confirmed whether adverts must show a fixed salary or a pay range, which employers and vacancies will be covered, or how compliance will be monitored. 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.”
The government argues the change will help jobseekers, particularly those applying for their first job, and could help prevent pay discrimination. It says publishing salaries upfront could “expose unjustified differences in pay, give workers greater confidence to challenge discrimination and prevent disagreements over pay escalating into disputes.”
Burnham said the current system felt “weighted against the applicant” and the changes were aimed at “tilting the scales back.” He added: “It can be quite soul destroying for young people these days, applying for jobs when the salary is not listed but sometimes they're not getting a reply.”
The proposal is part of efforts to reduce the number of young people not in education, employment or training. The government said nearly one million young people are not in any of those categories.
According to CIPD research, 41 per cent of employers always publish salary ranges in external job adverts, while 18 per cent always publish specific salaries. Data from jobs website Adzuna shows 51 per cent of adverts on its site in September had salary information, though the proportion has been falling in recent years.
CIPD chief executive Neil Carberry said that while giving salary details was “a good thing” in principle, in practice it was “more complicated.” He said drafting job adverts is “best left to good employer practice rather than government regulation.”
Conservative shadow business secretary Julia Lopez said: “At a time when employers are finding it harder and harder to take on staff, Labour have decided to make their lives even more difficult. It should be up to businesses to decide what information they advertise about job openings, and to decide how to attract the best applicants.”
The Equality and Human Rights Commission said publishing salaries in job adverts would be a “positive step.” The EU pay transparency directive requires member states to make companies publish starting salaries and pay ranges in job advertisements, though it does not apply domestically in the UK.
Sources
This article was drafted with AI assistance and checked against the sources above. Company claims are reported as claims. Cover image is AI-generated.
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