Update, 6 November 2026: the government has confirmed it will make salary information in job ads a legal requirement. Read our follow-up: Salaries in UK Job Ads Will Be Law: What Happens Next for Employers.

Should every UK job advertisement have to show the salary? The UK government thinks so. It has proposed making pay information in job ads a legal requirement, and its consultation closes at 5pm on 27 October 2026 (Source: GOV.UK, Equal pay and pay discrimination consultation, July 2026).

UK campaigners, employers and government have been debating it for at least six years, so it is fair to ask why it matters again now. Candidates want certainty. Many employers want flexibility. Both sides have a point, and the evidence is more interesting than the usual debate suggests. This article sets out what is proposed, how the UK compares with the US, Canada, Europe and Australia, the honest case on each side, and why we believe showing pay is good business for employers, law or no law.

At a glance

  • The UK government has proposed making pay information in job ads a legal requirement. The consultation closes on 27 October 2026.
  • 58% of UK postings on Indeed included pay in the three months to June 2026, down from 64% in September 2024, while 80% of UK workers say they avoid roles with no salary information.
  • Where pay transparency is law, it works: in Ontario, postings with pay rose from 49% to 71% within months, and a major US study found no impact on employment or the number of job postings.

Why an old debate matters now

None of this is new. The Show the Salary campaign launched in the UK charity sector in September 2020, and more than 200 employers signed its pledge (Source: We Show the Salary). In March 2022 the government launched a pay transparency pilot, in which participating employers would list salary details on job ads and stop asking about salary history (Source: GOV.UK, March 2022). In May 2024 that pilot was paused, with the government saying “we do not yet know whether there could be unintended negative impacts” (Source: UK Parliament, Women and Equalities Committee, May 2024). A new business-led campaign, We Show the Salary, launched in April 2025, the same month the government’s equality law call for evidence asked about pay transparency (Source: GOV.UK, April 2025).

Timeline of the UK debate on salaries in job ads, from the Show the Salary campaign in September 2020 to the consultation closing on 27 October 2026
Key moments in the UK debate on salaries in job ads.

So why discuss it again? Because three things have changed in 2026:

  • It has moved from voluntary to proposed law. After years of pledges and pilots, the government is now consulting on a requirement for all employers to publish pay information in job ads, with a closing date of 27 October 2026.
  • The voluntary approach is going backwards. On Indeed, the share of UK postings with pay rose from around 40% in January 2020 to a 64% high in September 2024, then fell back to 58% (Source: Indeed Hiring Lab Pay Transparency Tracker). Years of campaigning have not made transparency stick once the market turns.
  • There is now hard evidence from other countries. Laws in the US and Canada have been in place long enough to measure what actually happens to pay, applications and hiring.
Line chart of the share of job postings on Indeed with pay information from 2020 to June 2026 for the UK, US, Canada and Australia
The UK led for years, but its share of postings with pay has fallen back since 2024, while Canada has surged after Ontario legislated. Source: Indeed Hiring Lab Pay Transparency Tracker.

What is being proposed

In its July 2026 consultation, the government proposes “introducing a requirement for all employers to publish pay information in job adverts”. Where there is no job ad, the employer would need to give the candidate this information in writing before the job interview. The detail, “for example, the size of a salary range”, would be set later in regulations, and the consultation asks whether a pay range, a specific salary or a benchmark rate should be required (Source: GOV.UK, consultation document, July 2026). It is a proposal, not yet law, and it would cover England, Scotland and Wales only.

Europe is further ahead. EU Member States were required to bring the Pay Transparency Directive into national law by 7 June 2026. Under Article 5, applicants have the right to information about the initial pay or its range, and employers must not ask about their pay history (Source: EUR-Lex, Directive (EU) 2023/970, May 2023). UK businesses hiring in EU countries will need to follow each country’s national rules.

How the rest of the world compares

The UK is not alone in this debate. Across the countries Indeed tracks, one pattern stands out: pay transparency rises fastest where governments make it a requirement, and stalls where they leave it to employers.

  • United States. There is no national law, but Colorado began requiring pay in job postings in January 2021, and by October 2025 ten states, Washington DC and several cities had similar rules. The share of US online job postings with pay information rose from an average of 15% before January 2018 to around 53% since January 2024, although around 24% of ads covered by the laws still left pay out as of January 2025 (Source: Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Liberty Street Economics, October 2025).
  • Canada. Since 1 January 2026, Ontario employers with 25 or more employees must include expected pay in publicly advertised job postings, with any range no wider than C$50,000 (Source: Government of Ontario). On Indeed, the share of Ontario postings with pay rose from 49% just before the rules took effect to 71% by June 2026. Outside British Columbia and Ontario, which both legislated, the rest of Canada has stalled at around 40% (Source: Indeed Hiring Lab Canada, July 2026).
  • Europe. Indeed’s European research found that in March 2026 the UK was still the most transparent large European market, at 56% of postings, followed by the Netherlands (48%), France (43%), Ireland (39%) and Italy (36%). Only 17% of Spanish and 12% of German postings disclosed pay. Austria has required pay information in job postings since 2011. Even so, Indeed expected most large member states to miss the June 2026 deadline (Source: Indeed Hiring Lab, May 2026).
  • Australia. There is no requirement to show pay in job ads, although pay secrecy terms in employment contracts made on or after 7 December 2022 cannot be enforced (Source: Fair Work Ombudsman). Around 29% of Australian postings on Indeed included pay in the three months to June 2026 (Source: Indeed Hiring Lab Pay Transparency Tracker).
  • Japan. Showing pay is simply the norm, with 97% of postings on Indeed including it.
Dumbbell chart of the share of job postings on Indeed with pay information, September 2024 compared with the three months to June 2026. Japan 97% to 97%, UK 64% to 59%, Canada 42% to 56%, US 46% to 50%, France 45% to 39%, Ireland 36% to 36%, Australia 33% to 29%, Germany 12% to 14%. Also shown for March 2026: Netherlands 48%, Italy 36%, Spain 17%.
Since September 2024, the share of postings with pay has fallen in the UK, France and Australia, and risen in Canada and the US, where pay transparency laws have spread. These are all the countries for which Indeed publishes comparable figures. Sources: Indeed Hiring Lab Pay Transparency Tracker; Indeed Hiring Lab, May 2026.

On Indeed’s figures, the UK still ranks second only to Japan among the eight countries in its tracker, which sounds like a success. The trend tells a different story. Between September 2024 and the three months to June 2026, the share of postings with pay fell by around 5 percentage points in the UK, 6 in France and 3 in Australia. Over the same period it rose by around 14 points in Canada and 4 in the US, where pay transparency laws have spread (Source: Indeed Hiring Lab Pay Transparency Tracker). Ranking high on a voluntary basis has not stopped the UK going backwards. And the US experience answers the biggest question employers ask: what happens to pay? A study of Colorado’s law, published by the US National Bureau of Economic Research in November 2025, found the share of postings with salary information rose by 30 percentage points and wages rose by 1.3% to 3.6%, with no impact on employment, the number of job postings or skill and education requirements (Source: NBER Working Paper 34480, November 2025). For employers, that is both a warning and a reassurance: transparency can lift pay across a market, but it did not reduce hiring.

The case against publishing salaries

Employers who hold back are not being unreasonable. The concerns we hear most often are real:

  • Flexibility. Many employers want room to hire someone more or less senior than planned, and worry a published figure locks them in.
  • Internal pay. A new job ad can reveal that existing staff in similar roles earn less, which creates difficult conversations.
  • Competitors. Some employers do not want rivals to see what they pay for specialist roles.
  • Burden. The government itself recognises that “an expansive scope could be more burdensome for employers”, and says it will assess what pay details, if any, should be required beyond basic salary.

Behaviour in the market reflects this. In the three months to June 2026, 58% of UK job postings on Indeed included pay information, below the 64% high seen in September 2024. Indeed links the dip to cooler hiring conditions: as employer bargaining power strengthens, the incentive to compete on pay visibility weakens (Source: Indeed Hiring Lab, 2026 Mid-Year UK Jobs and Hiring Trends Report, August 2026).

The case for publishing salaries

Candidates are clear about what they want. In a Totaljobs survey of 3,000 UK workers in November 2025, 80% said they avoid applying for roles with no salary information, 89% said they are more likely to apply when a salary range is listed, and 83% said a lack of salary information negatively affects their opinion of an organisation. Hidden pay also costs employers: 33% of the 1,000 recruiters and HR professionals surveyed said candidates drop out when salary expectations are discussed too late, leading to longer time to hire, extra workload and higher recruitment costs (Source: Totaljobs, UK Salary Trends Report 2026, January 2026).

The evidence from Australia points the same way. In a Robert Half survey of 500 Australian hiring managers, 91% of those who include salary information in job ads said it improves the quality of the applications they receive (Source: Robert Half Australia, August 2026).

Two common fears also look weaker on closer inspection. On flexibility, the EU Directive says transparency should work “without limiting in any way the employer’s or worker’s bargaining power to negotiate a salary even outside the indicated range”. On being flooded with applications, a randomised field experiment with 447 vacancies in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, published as a Bank of England working paper in October 2025, found that disclosing wages did not change average application volumes or average applicant quality. Higher-paying vacancies attracted more applicants and lower-paying ones fewer (Source: Bank of England Staff Working Paper, October 2025).

For employers, the practical benefits are clear:

  • Better fit. Candidates who apply already know the pay works for them, so fewer drop out at offer stage.
  • Stronger employer brand. Openness about pay signals fairness.
  • Better visibility. Google’s job posting guidance lists base salary as a recommended property, which helps search engines and AI tools understand and surface your roles.

Our view: the debate has moved on

As the history above shows, the case for putting salaries in job ads is not new. What is new is the evidence, and it points to three less obvious conclusions, and they matter more for employers.

1. Hiding pay is usually a pay problem, not an advertising problem

When Colorado required pay in job postings, wages rose by 1.3% to 3.6%, including for existing staff and for firms that had always shown pay. The field experiment in Ethiopia found that showing wages did not change average application numbers. It moved applicants towards better-paying vacancies and away from lower-paying ones. Put together, the employers with most to lose from transparency are those paying below the market. If a salary cannot survive being seen, rewriting the job ad will not fix it.

2. Employers are treating transparency like a tap

Indeed links the UK fall from 64% to 58% to employers’ stronger bargaining power as hiring cooled. Turning pay off when the market softens and back on when it tightens is visible to candidates, and if the proposal becomes law, every employer will be forced back on at the same time. While around four in ten UK postings on Indeed still hide pay, showing it is one of the cheapest ways to stand out.

3. The next fight is range width, not whether to publish

The UK consultation already asks about “the size of a salary range”, and Ontario caps posted ranges at C$50,000. The good news is that most UK ranges are already tight. Indeed found the median annual salary range in UK postings between January and March 2026 was 17% of the lower bound, roughly £30,000 to £35,100, and UK ranges were the narrowest of the European countries it studied (Source: Indeed Hiring Lab, May 2026). The risk is the outliers. A range so wide it tells candidates nothing, such as £30,000 to £60,000 for a mid-level role, will stand out once every employer has to publish. Employers should be agreeing honest, defensible ranges now, backed by a clear pay structure they can explain to their own people.

How RMG can help

Pay transparency is not only an HR or reward question. It changes how your job ads, careers site and employer brand work. RMG helps employers and recruitment businesses across the UK, Australia and the UAE to get ready by:

  • Auditing live job postings across your careers site, job boards, LinkedIn and agency partners.
  • Rewriting job ads so pay sits alongside a clear total reward and employer brand story.
  • Reviewing your careers site and job posting data for SEO and AIO, including salary information search engines can read.
  • Briefing hiring managers and recruitment partners so every conversation matches the job ad.
  • Tracking the impact on application quality, drop-out and time to hire through recruitment advertising optimisation.

Frequently asked questions

Is it a legal requirement to include salary in UK job ads?

Not at the moment. In July 2026 the UK government proposed a requirement for all employers to publish pay information in job ads in England, Scotland and Wales. The consultation closes on 27 October 2026, and the exact rules would be set later in regulations.

Will publishing a salary range stop us negotiating?

Not necessarily. The EU Directive explicitly says transparency should not limit the ability to negotiate a salary, even outside the advertised range. The final UK rules have not yet been set.

Does the EU Pay Transparency Directive apply to UK employers?

It is EU law, so it does not apply in the UK itself. UK businesses hiring people in EU countries will need to follow the national rules each country has introduced.

Which countries require salaries in job ads or job postings?

There is no single global rule. In the US, Colorado, Washington and a growing number of other states, plus cities such as New York City, require pay information in job postings. In Canada, British Columbia and Ontario require pay in publicly advertised jobs. EU Member States were required to introduce pay transparency rules by 7 June 2026. Australia and the UK do not currently require pay in job ads.

Conclusion

The salary debate is often framed as candidates against employers. The evidence from the UK, North America and beyond suggests it does not need to be. Candidates want certainty, and employers who give it attract better-matched applicants, lose fewer people late in the process and build more trusted employer brands. With the UK consultation closing on 27 October, now is the time to decide where you stand, and to get your job ads ready.

Sources

Want to get your job ads and employer brand ready for pay transparency? Get in touch with RMG to find out how we can help.