Prime Minister Andy Burnham has called on businesses to start publishing salary information in job advertisements immediately, rather than waiting for forthcoming legislation that will make the practice mandatory. The government is currently preparing to introduce these requirements as soon as possible, aiming to assist jobseekers—particularly those entering the workforce for the first time—while simultaneously tackling pay discrimination.
This initiative follows a government consultation conducted over the summer, which received overwhelming support from the public. According to official figures, 94% of respondents backed the move to increase transparency. Mr. Burnham emphasized that potential employees, whether young people just starting out or parents supporting their families, deserve to know the value of a role before committing time and effort to an application. 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. According to the Cabinet Office launched a consultation into pay and reducing discrimination in the summer, and the government, There had been “overwhelming support” for greater transparency, with 94% of respondents backing the move.
Proponents suggest that disclosing salary data could expose unjustified pay disparities, give workers more confidence to challenge discriminatory practices, and prevent salary-related disagreements from escalating. The government stated this plan is part of a broader effort to reduce the number of young people not in education, employment, or training, with further updates on enforcement and specific requirements expected in due course.
The UK proposal mirrors measures currently being implemented in the European Union, where employers must disclose initial pay ranges in job adverts or before a candidate undergoes an interview. Data from the UK jobs platform Adzuna indicates that while 51% of listings in September included salary information, the overall frequency of such transparency has been declining over recent years. Have you applied to jobs when you didnât know the salary.
Andrew Hunter, co-founder of Adzuna, argued that pay transparency should be the standard practice, noting that businesses providing salary details typically attract a larger and more suitable pool of applicants. Research from the CIPD suggests that charities and public sector organizations are currently more likely to disclose pay details than private firms, although many still use wide pay bands that can exceed £10,000. And better-suited ones”, he added that employers who put a salary on a job advert “attract more applicants. With pay ranges sometimes wider than £10,000, but it found not all employers were “fully transparent”.
Despite the government’s push, industry pushback remains. CIPD chief executive Neil Carberry noted that while pay transparency is a positive principle, the practical application is complex. He argued that pay often depends on a candidate’s specific skills and experience rather than a single fixed figure, suggesting that drafting job advertisements should remain a matter of employer practice rather than government regulation.
The push for transparency also aligns with recent recommendations from the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), which described salary publication as a positive step.
Beyond job adverts, the commission suggested that employers should be required to respond to staff questionnaires regarding colleague pay to identify discrimination. Additionally, the EHRC advised that companies should be barred from inquiring about a candidate’s current salary during the hiring process to break cycles of pay inequality.
Currently, UK employers are permitted to ask about an applicant’s current compensation, although candidates are not under any legal obligation to disclose their salary history. These various measures remain under consideration as the government prepares its final legislative approach.
