Half of jobseekers (48 per cent) claim that no salary or a lack of salary clarity on job ads is their biggest bug bear. According to research from Adzuna, seven in ten Brits (69 per cent) think employers need to be more transparent on their job ads, with a third (31 per cent) believing salary transparency should be the number one priority on postings – more important than the job role itself (18 per cent), the location (11 per cent) or any work benefit schemes (7 per cent).
As well as calling on all businesses to show salaries in their job ads, Adzuna is going one step further by campaigning for the UK government to make including salaries on job ads a legal requirement.
Employers not including salary information on job ads is leading to hours wasted for jobseekers. More than a third (36 per cent) declined a job straight-out 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 per cent wasting over 10 hours on the process and 3 per cent 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 per cent) wouldn’t attend an interview in future if they didn’t know what an employer was willing to offer in terms of salary.
Whilst the lack of salary transparency is frustrating on a practical level, it’s also hiding a bigger issue by helping perpetuate the gender pay gap. The research revealed that women (33 per cent) are much more likely to find lack of salary transparency an issue when compared to men (21 per cent). 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.
There also appears to be a regional divide when it comes to salary transparency. Yorkshire and The Humber (63 per cent) is the most open and honest whilst London (55 per cent), Scotland (49 per cent) and Northern Ireland (28 per cent) 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.
The lack of salary transparency is an industry-wide problem, but certain sectors are faring better than others. Charity and voluntary jobs (88 per cent) are the most transparent, followed by social work (76 per cent) and manufacturing (75 per cent). Creative and design jobs (32 per cent) are the least transparent, while retail jobs (37 per cent), energy jobs (39 per cent) and IT jobs at (43 per cent) also rank amongst the lowest.
Growing Appetite for 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 per cent) assume the company is hiding something, while a quarter believe it shows the company would underpay them (24 per cent). Others think it makes the company look untrustworthy (22 per cent), unprofessional (21 per cent) or shows them to be biased on how they pay their employees (18 per cent).
A third of Brits (32 per cent) don’t know how much their colleagues are getting paid but four in five (80 per cent) would be open or are neutral to their colleagues knowing how much they earn. Two thirds (63 per cent) think employers making salaries more transparent would make the workplace fairer.
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.”
Join Adzuna and help change the law for good by signing the petition to make it mandatory to put salaries on job ads. Follow the link and sign here: https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/622628
