On LinkedIn, we asked potential hunters whether they would apply for a role that advertised the salary in their job description as competitive rather than a direct salary range. 64% said that they would not apply.
Competitive salary can be defined as salary that is “equal to, or greater than, the average salary for the same/similar roles in the area”. According to a poll by Reed, one of the UK’s largest recruitment companies, 78% of workers said they were less likely to apply for a role that didn’t include the salary whilst 62% of hiring managers didn’t believe that salary secrecy negatively affected applications.
According to the New York Times, New York City is the latest state in the US to join a handful of others that require employers to disclose salary ranges when listing a new job vacancy, internally or eternally. With the potential for fines of up to $250,000 if they do not comply after a first offense, the hope is to change the landscape of recruitment, with job boards such as Indeed following suit, and no longer sharing new job postings in New York City that do not have salary ranges.
Why do employers insist on not advertising salary?
Even with all this infomation at their finger tips, why do employers still want to advertise their jobs without a salary range? As we know it’s not unusual for two people to be paid different salaries for essentially the same role. Pay can be based on many factors, including a person’s experience and performance and usually the market rate for the position when they were hired and their negotiation skills. It could be that the employer is having to pay more for a new employee because the market rate has gone up since they last recruited for that role for example. It could also be that the company does not employ a transparent salary structure and prefer to keep salaries private.
Why should employers advertise salary levels?
As experienced recruiters, we recognise the importance of posting salary ranges, particularly when working in conjunction with job boards such as Indeed who actively prefer job postings with a published salary. Studies have shown that candidates are more likely to apply for roles with advertised salary ranges, in fact not advertising the salary can negate the candidate market to nearly half or as our LinkedIn poll shows, nearly two thirds therefore it is within the interest of the employers to do so. Also not advertising the salary can also make the hiring time for roles much longer than it needs to be.
Not only does being transparent around salary make the recruitment process more efficient but surely transparency around salary will support fair pay equity goals across companies and in the long term employee retention.
Bearing all the factors in mind we always encourage our clients to publish salaries with accurate salary bands at the very least.
If you’re an employer who would like advice regarding advertising salaries, please feel free to contact us here.
If you need help salary negotiate take a look at the link below.
