New research by job search engine Adzuna has revealed that for 48 percent, not offering salary transparency on job ads is one of the biggest gripes when it comes to job hunting.

A third (31%) believe salary transparency should be the number one priority on postings. They believe it is even more important than the job role itself (18%), the location (11%) or any work benefit schemes (7%). 

The issue is helping to perpetuate inequality and the gender pay gap, with women finding lack of salary transparency a far bigger issue than men.

Adzuna is on a mission to make the job market fairer and more transparent for good. As well as calling on all businesses to show salaries in their job ads, the company is going one step further by campaigning for the UK government to make including salaries on job ads a legal requirement. 

 

How much time is being wasted?

Employers not including salary information on job ads is leading to hours wasted for jobseekers. 

More than a third (36%) declined a job straight after they found out the intended salary, after going through lengthy interview processes. 

On average, jobseekers wasted six hours applying per position, with the wrong salary with 13 percent wasting over 10 hours on the process and 3 percent investing over 20 hours interviewing for the wrong job. 

In total, Adzuna analysis on job hunting activity over the last five years alone revealed UK workers have wasted over 70 million hours applying for jobs with the wrong salary. Now, almost half of workers (46%) would not attend an interview in future if they did not know what an employer was willing to offer in terms of salary. 

 

Salary transparency fuelling the gender pay gap 

Whilst the lack of salary transparency is frustrating on a practical level, it is also hiding a bigger issue by helping perpetuate the gender pay gap. 

The research revealed that women (33%) are much more likely to find a lack of salary transparency an issue when compared to men (21%). 

There is also a connection between salary transparency and the gender pay gap. A recent analysis by The Times called out companies with the biggest gender pay gaps, including ASOS, EasyJet and Savills, all of which have low levels of salary transparency according to the Adzuna data.

 

North vs South divide

There also appears to be a regional divide when it comes to salary transparency. Yorkshire and The Humber (63%) is the most open and honest whilst London (55%), Scotland (49%) and Northern Ireland (28%) are at the bottom of the roster. 

Interestingly, London has been cited in the news as having both the worst ethnicity pay gap and worst gender pay gap which adds fuel to the fire. 

 

Industry breakdown 

The lack of salary transparency is an industry-wide problem, but certain sectors are faring better than others. Charity and voluntary jobs (88%) are the most transparent, followed by social work (76%) and manufacturing (75%). 

Creative and design jobs (32%) are the least transparent, while retail jobs (37%), energy jobs (39%) and IT jobs (43%) also rank amongst the lowest. 

 

Growing appetite for salary transparency

UK workers are crying out for more transparency in the jobs market. In fact, the lack of salary on a job ad makes potential employees sceptical of an employer. A third (32%) assume the company is hiding something, while a quarter believes it shows the company would underpay them (24%). 

Others think it makes the company look untrustworthy (22%), unprofessional (21%) or shows them to be biased on how they pay their employees (18%).

A third of Brits (32%) don’t know how much their colleagues are getting paid but four in five (80%) would be open or are neutral to their colleagues knowing how much they earn. 

Two-thirds (63%) think employers making salaries more transparent would make the workplace fairer. 

 

Salary transparency is only the start of the issue

Salary transparency is just the tip of the iceberg. The worst bugbear is not receiving a reply after applying for a role (32%). Alarmingly, jobseekers have applied on average for seven jobs in the last five years with just three in ten (30%) of those applications leading to an interview. 

So deep is the issue that four in ten (42%) Brits have wanted to move jobs but decided against it as the process of job hunting is too stressful. 

On average, this led them to stay in the job for an additional 3.5 years. A tenth (13%) are still in their job as a result.  

 

Doug Monro, Co- Founder & CEO at Adzuna commented:

“Our research has confirmed what we have thought for a long-time – jobseekers are fed up with the job application process and the lack of salary transparency on job ads is one of main issues. We’re campaigning to make salary transparency law in the UK and calling on all companies to join our mission.

“We want employees to know their worth and waste less time on applications, but we also want to bring value to employers who will be able to attract the right candidates. Most importantly, we want to combat the existing gender pay gap and see salary transparency as the start of this important journey.” 

 

Amelia Brand

Amelia Brand is the Editor for HRreview, and host of the HR in Review podcast series. With a Master’s degree in Legal and Political Theory, her particular interests within HR include employment law, DE&I, and wellbeing within the workplace. Prior to working with HRreview, Amelia was Sub-Editor of a magazine, and Editor of the Environmental Justice Project at University College London, writing and overseeing articles into UCL’s weekly newsletter. Her previous academic work has focused on philosophy, politics and law, with a special focus on how artificial intelligence will feature in the future.