Salaries always have and always will be a hot topic. Whether looking at living wages, tax allowances, or opportunities to progress, the subject of money can often be contentious and tricky to navigate. Ultimately, everyone has bills to pay, and lives to live, so why the eggshells around money?
Looking at our data*, we found that so far in 2024 jobs that disclose a salary receive 60% more applications than those that don’t – jumping up 33 percentage points since 2021**. Additionally, our recent survey explored what motivates candidates when looking for a new role. Our data revealed that 47% of people would be inclined to leave their job due to an insufficient salary***. A toxic workplace culture (41%), a lack of work-life balance (37%), and not feeling valued and respected at work (37%) are also factors that make employees want to find a new role.
Almost two-thirds of employers (64%) said they find it more difficult to generate applications in the current market than usual, with 16% saying they’re struggling to attract candidates with relevant skills. With recruiters working hard to get eyes on their job adverts in the first place, it’s important to make them as enticing as possible to ensure candidates apply – and something as simple as stating the salary or salary range could be the answer.
6 reasons why you should include salary in your job ads:
1. Increase your diversity
While salary transparency alone will not increase diversity in your company, it should be a fundamental tactic of your diversity and inclusion strategy. The data shows that 28% of hiring managers are open to pay transparency as it encourages diverse candidates to apply to their roles.
When a business is looking for ways to attract diverse candidates to their organisation, this simple addition is a proven way to catch their attention. Excellent training, benefits, and targeted marketing undoubtedly have merit, but the stats show that salary and transparency are as crucial in diversity and inclusion as anywhere else.
2. Close the gender pay gap
The gender pay gap in the UK is making a steady but slow decline overall. The government reported the pay gap among all employees decreased to 14.3% in 2023, down from 15.4% in 2021. But there is still much work to do, with significant disparities in every industry and high-salaried professional roles still seeing a particular deficit in gender salary differences.
Changing legacy attitudes and stigma is part of the process, but where businesses strive to make a change, stating salaries and being transparent will make a difference.
We found that 49% of females would be deterred from applying for a role due to a lack of clarity around salary on the job ad compared to 42% of males. When backed up with studies showing that women find it more difficult than men to negotiate salaries or ask for a pay rise, companies must work to show that salary isn’t a dirty word and that asking (appropriately) for more money won’t be shot down at the first time of asking.
3. Protect your employer brand
Candidates are savvier than ever, and with more information at their fingertips, they (quite rightly) will do their homework on your business to get a well-rounded view of where they are potentially applying.
One in five companies (22%) said they display salaries in their job ads to improve their employer brand – and chances are that’s motivating more candidates to apply.
Why is the company holding it back? What else don’t they share? Is it a ‘them’ and ‘us’ environment? Do they not want to, or can’t pay their employees properly? All these questions can easily be triggered when there’s no salary stated, potentially tarnishing the business’s culture and ethos unnecessarily.
4. Save time and stay relevant
Salary is a primary filter for candidates searching for jobs, so adding it to your job ads is a no-brainer.
The recruitment process has so many considerations already, so reducing the talent pool to manageable and relevant applications is helpful and essential to keeping things running smoothly.
Stating the salary will help to attract talent from the right salary bracket, saving you time and money in the long run by filtering out unsuitable or non-serious candidates.
5. Attract more millennial and Gen Z applicants
Younger people (18-34 year-olds) are a key demographic within the UK labour market, and their expectations and values will shape the future of recruitment. And, with the current cost-of-living crisis, the importance of salary transparency isn’t something they underestimate.
In fact, our research found that 68% of 18-34-year-olds would not, or would be unlikely to, apply for a role that does not state the salary on the job ad.
With millennials (those born between 1981 and 1996) set to make up 75% of the global workforce by 2025 and more and more Gen Z (those born between 1997 and 2009) entering the workforce, it’s clear that businesses need to consider what these demographics want when creating and evolving company policies – and that includes salary transparency.
Of course, salary will always be extremely important to candidates of all ages, but our research found that it’s particularly important to younger jobseekers. More 18-34-year-olds are considering looking for a new job with higher pay (51%) than any other age bracket demonstrating how money-motivated these generations are.
6. Give candidates all the information they need
The danger of not being transparent is that it leaves candidates wanting to search for the missing information. They may try to guess the salary based on your other roles, industry averages, or from review sites such as Glassdoor – and this information may not be correct.
Misinformation can incorrectly influence a candidate’s decision, meaning they miss out on potentially perfect opportunities. In turn, businesses lose talent before they’ve had a chance to meet them. With the cost of living and the economic climate playing a massive role in everyday plans and the future, candidates will naturally want to know if a job is financially viable for them.
Don’t leave it for candidates to work it out for themselves and compare you unfairly to other businesses. Instead, stand out and give them all the information they need so they can make an informed decision, and ultimately businesses will receive applications from the right calibre of candidates.
So there we have it. A few of the significant benefits of practicing salary transparency by posting the salary on your job ad. Doing so makes your job ad more attractive and effectively balances your needs with those of your potential candidates.
Our articles can help you with finding the right candidates for your organisation, support their professional development, and so much more, all of which you can find here.
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*Jobs posted on Reed.co.uk from 1/1/2024 – 29/5/2024
**Analysis of jobs adverts on Reed.co.uk during 2021
*** Survey commissioned by Reed.co.uk consisting of 2004 jobseekers, and 253 UK-based hiring managers between 25 April – 1 May 2024
