Prime Minister Andy Burnham has called on employers to start publishing salary details in job advertisements now, rather than waiting for upcoming government legislation to mandate the practice. The government intends to make such disclosures compulsory, with plans to introduce the necessary law as soon as possible.
This initiative follows a Cabinet Office consultation held over the summer, which found overwhelming support for greater transparency, with 94% of respondents backing the move. Burnham emphasized that prospective employees, whether they are young people entering the workforce or parents supporting families, should understand a role’s compensation before investing time and effort into the application process. The government views this as a vital step toward reducing youth inactivity and preventing pay discrimination. You should know what a job pays before spending your time and effort applying for it,” Burnham said, whether you’re a young person starting out or a parent trying to support your family. According to the government, The move was part of attempts to reduce the nearly one million young people not in education, employment or training – or “Neet” – ahead of the final report of the Milburn Review into youth inactivity, which is due in the coming weeks.
Financial Secretary to the Treasury James Murray described the proposal as a common-sense reform, noting on Radio 4’s Today programme that pay should not be a guessing game. Supporters argue that upfront salary information could expose unjustified pay gaps, build worker confidence in challenging bias, and prevent salary-related disputes from escalating. According to speaking to Radio 4’s Today programme, he, Pay “shouldn’t be a guessing game” and acknowledged the frustration some might feel when applying for jobs.
The push for transparency aligns with similar measures being introduced across the European Union, where employers will be required to disclose initial pay or ranges in adverts or before job interviews. Currently, data from the UK recruitment platform Adzuna shows that while 51% of job adverts included salary information in September, this proportion has been steadily declining. Which must either be included in a published job advert or shared before an interview, employers in Europe will have to disclose the initial pay or range for new roles. External, 51% of the adverts on its site in September had salary information, but the proportion has been falling in recent years, according to data from UK jobs website Adzuna. External, an industry body for human resources managers, has indicated that the public sector and charities are more likely to reveal pay information that private firms, while pay ranges were more common than specific salaries, previous research from the CIPD. With pay ranges sometimes wider than £10,000, but it found not all employers were “fully transparent”.
Industry response to the proposal has been mixed.
While some, like Adzuna co-founder Andrew Hunter, believe transparency should be the norm because it attracts better-suited applicants, others have voiced concerns.
Neil Carberry, chief executive of the CIPD, warned that setting pay is a complex process often based on an individual’s skills, experience, and potential, rather than a single fixed figure. He argued that drafting job advertisements is best managed through good employer practice rather than strict government regulation.
The government has confirmed it will provide further details regarding the specific requirements and enforcement of the legislation in due course. Meanwhile, the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) has welcomed the move as a positive step. Last week, the commission suggested that employers should also be legally required to respond to questionnaires regarding colleague pay and be barred from inquiring about a candidate’s current salary during the hiring process to help break cycles of discrimination. According to it comes a week after the UK’s equality watchdog, Employees should legally be able to find out what their colleagues are earning.
Currently, UK employers are permitted to ask about an applicant’s existing salary, though job seekers are under no obligation to disclose it. Furthermore, businesses are not currently mandated to share information about the earnings of other employees, a situation the EHRC argues should change to ensure a more equitable workplace environment.
