UK employers to be required to publish salaries on job adverts

Employers across the UK will be required by law to state what they pay when they advertise new jobs, Prime Minister Andy Burnham has announced. The Guardian reported that the requirement will apply to all employers listing new vacancies.

The government set out the plan on 5 November in a statement on gov.uk, under the title "New 'say what you pay' law to help young people into work." It describes the change as requiring job adverts to say what the job pays. Burnham has also urged businesses to start publishing salaries now rather than wait for the law to take effect, according to the BBC.

Burnham said people should know what a job pays before they spend time and effort applying for it. Paul Nowak, general secretary of the Trades Union Congress, the umbrella body for unions, said jobseekers find it frustrating to read "competitive salary" on adverts, a phrase that does not show what the role actually pays.

Research by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, a professional body for human resources staff, suggests that disclosure is far from routine. It found that less than half of employers always published salary ranges on job adverts, and that less than a fifth always published specific salaries.

Campaigners say that publishing pay on adverts would help young people and women in particular to secure more equal pay. The idea is that clear figures at the application stage make it easier to compare offers and to spot gaps.

The salary requirement sits alongside a wider debate about equal pay. In July, ministers first consulted on ways to improve how existing equal pay laws work. That consultation also proposed stronger equality protections for disabled people and ethnic minorities.

The government has also promised further policy changes to help young people into work in the coming weeks. Those changes are due to respond to a review led by Alan Milburn, a former minister.

Burnham is separately working on a 10-year plan that he says will end what he calls "40 years of neoliberalism". The plan is expected to include bringing utilities under public control. He said this week that the plan could be delayed until next year, having originally been expected next month.