UK Wants Every Job Ad to Show the Salary Upfront

Employers in the UK are being told to put the money on the table — literally. After a Cabinet Office consultation launched in the summer, the government says there was 'overwhelming support' for pay transparency, with 94% of respondents backing the move. The plan: salaries published in job adverts, before anyone spends an evening on a CV.

Andy Burnham put it plainly: 'Whether you're a young person starting out or a parent trying to support your family, you should know what a job pays before spending your time and effort applying for it.' The government frames the shift as a weapon against the nearly one million young people not in education, employment or training — the so-called 'Neet' group — and it lands ahead of the final report of the Milburn Review into youth inactivity, due in the coming weeks.

Officials argue that publishing pay upfront could expose unjustified differences in pay, give workers more confidence to challenge discrimination, and stop disagreements over money from escalating into full-blown disputes. The proposals echo rules rolling out across the European Union, where employers must disclose the initial pay or range for new roles — either in the advert itself or before an interview.

Reality check: the UK isn't there yet. According to jobs site Adzuna, 51% of adverts on its platform in September carried salary information, but that share has been sliding in recent years. Co-founder Andrew Hunter said being open about pay 'should be the norm, not the exception', adding that employers who show a number 'attract more applicants, and better-suited ones'.

Not everyone is sold on a legal fix. CIPD research has found the public sector and charities are more forthcoming than private firms, with pay ranges more common than exact figures — and some of those ranges stretching wider than £10,000. Chief executive Neil Carberry called salary disclosure 'a good thing' in principle but 'more complicated' in practice, noting there isn't always a single fixed figure and that employers want to set pay around a candidate's skills, experience and potential. Drafting adverts, he argued, is 'best left to good employer practice rather than government regulation'.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission weighed in last week, calling published salaries a 'positive step' and going further: bosses should have to answer questionnaires about colleagues' pay, and employers should be barred from asking what a candidate currently earns to stop old discrimination from following them around. Right now UK employers can ask about your current salary — though you're under no obligation to answer. Ministers say further details on what information will be required, and how the law will be enforced, will come 'in due course'.