Nearly one in five job adverts in the UK promote at least one basic legal entitlement, such as statutory holiday leave or rest breaks, as a workplace perk, new research suggests.
An analysis found that 18 percent of job listings present baseline legal rights as employee benefits. In some cases, adverts even listed essentials such as drinking water or coffee as perks.
It raises questions about how transparently employers are presenting pay and working conditions to candidates at a time when ministers are considering stronger action on pay transparency and equal pay enforcement.
Basic entitlements marketed as benefits
The research, by employee engagement and benefits platform Reward Gateway | Edenred, examined 9,646 job adverts to assess how companies advertise pay and workplace benefits.
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It found that some employers are framing standard workplace provisions as incentives to attract applicants. Water was listed as a workplace perk in 1,009 job adverts, while coffee appeared in 553 listings.
Training was also highlighted as a benefit in 457 adverts, despite being essential in many roles for employees to perform their duties.
In other cases, companies presented statutory employment rights as perks. Around 336 job adverts promoted 28 days of annual leave, the minimum legal requirement in the UK, as a workplace benefit.
The industries most likely to advertise the statutory holiday allowance as a perk were charity organisations, social care providers and sales roles.
Even in sectors with relatively high salaries, employers sometimes highlighted statutory protections as benefits. Law firms, for example, ranked among the sectors most likely to advertise statutory sick pay and statutory maternity leave as perks.
Some adverts also promoted workplace amenities such as snacks, fruit, casual dress policies or Christmas parties as employee benefits.
Salary transparency still limited
The research also points to persistent gaps in pay transparency in job advertising.
Despite growing campaigns urging employers to publish salaries in job adverts, around 30 percent of the roles analysed did not disclose any pay information.
Strategy and consultancy roles were the least transparent, with 205 job adverts in the dataset failing to include salary details. Estate agency followed with 154 adverts without salary information, while manufacturing accounted for 143.
These sectors often rely on negotiation based pay structures or commission models, which may encourage employers to avoid publishing clear salary figures.
By contrast, retail, catering, social care and charity roles were the most likely to disclose salary information.
Wide salary bands may mask inequality
Where salaries were published, many adverts included broad pay ranges rather than fixed figures.
The study found that 17 percent of job listings advertised a set salary, while 53 percent published a salary range. Across all job levels, the average gap between the lowest and highest salary in advertised pay bands was £9,887.
In some sectors the gap was significantly wider. Estate agency roles had the largest average salary band at £43,274, followed by law at £30,103 and insurance at £20,921. Researchers said wide pay bands could obscure pay differences between employees doing similar roles.
Customer services, apprenticeships and retail recorded the smallest salary ranges, with average gaps of £1,660, £1,783 and £2,461 respectively.
Jobseekers increasingly demand pay transparency
Campaigns such as #SayThePay have emerged in response to concerns about hidden salaries and misleading job advertising. Previous research suggests many candidates are unwilling to apply for roles that do not disclose salary information.
Chris Britton, People Experience Director at Reward Gateway | Edenred, said clearer job advertising would benefit both employers and candidates.
“It’s surprising that nearly one in five job ads still promote basic legal entitlements as perks and that salary transparency remains limited, with 30 percent of adverts providing no pay information,” he said. “However, improving transparency is vital to helping both employers and employees. It enables candidates to make informed career decisions, while helping businesses attract and retain top talent.”
He added that firms “should prioritise delivering meaningful benefits that support financial, physical, and emotional wellbeing, rather than repackaging minimal offerings to make roles appear more attractive”.
The issue has become more prominent as concerns grow about misleading recruitment practices. Separate research has suggested that as many as 34 percent of UK job adverts could be “ghost jobs”, listings that remain online even though employers have no immediate intention of hiring.
Meanwhile, reports from sectors such as social care have raised concerns about hourly rates that appear higher in job adverts but can fall below the legal minimum once travel time or unpaid hours are taken into account.
William Furney is a Managing Editor at Black and White Trading Ltd based in Kingston upon Hull, UK. He is a prolific author and contributor at Workplace Wellbeing Professional, with over 127 published posts covering HR, employee engagement, and workplace wellbeing topics. His writing focuses on contemporary employment issues including pension schemes, employee health, financial struggles affecting workers, and broader workplace trends.
- William Furney
- William Furney
- William Furney
- William Furney
