A fifth of jobseekers won't apply for a job if salary isn't listed 

A study of 2,000 British office workers conducted by Perspectus Global showed that 90% of those polled believe salaries should always be included in job descriptions. Half of these deemed it a "waste of time" applying for a job with no salary band.

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The research said 20% of those polled said they would not bother to apply for a role if there was no salary mentioned, meaning employers could be losing out on millions of applicants.

A further 57% of workers said they were much less likely to apply for a job if the salary range wasn’t stated upfront.

Demand for pay transparency is growing in the UK. The pandemic sparked a wave of employees wanting to remove the salary taboo as the cost-of-living crisis and inflationary pressures continue to squeeze households.

Last year, some U.S states including New York brought in a new law which requires all covered businesses or employers of domestic workers to list “good faith” salary ranges for any posting for a new job.

Campaigners say a lack of pay transparency around jobs contributes to the gender and ethnicity gaps. Evidence shows that listing salary bands builds leadership trust and improves job satisfaction. 

Last year, the UK government launched a pay transparency pilot to level up employment opportunities for women. 

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Jon Horsley of Perspectus Global: “With several states in the US having made it a legal requirement for employers to publish salaries on job ads, a backlash against the vague phrase ‘competitive salary’ is gaining momentum in the UK. The writing seems to be on the wall - if your salary is so competitive, why don’t you publish it? It’s likely that companies that don’t take heed will face a bigger recruitment challenge than those that do.”

The report also revealed other reasons why Brits won’t apply or accept new jobs. It found that while their application is being processed, 60% of respondents said that they had too many interview stages of a job, such as having to “work for free”.

Psychologist and employee experience consultant Debbie Martin said: “I’ve heard horror stories about people having to do eight interviews before getting jobs. I think it’s not the number of interviews that is the problem, it’s the fact that people aren’t clear about that at the start. If you know there’s going to be four interviews then you can prepare yourself for it but if they keep adding on stages, that’s a lot of extra aggravation. 

“If employers keep adding on tasks or interview stages, this brings up a level of distrust, and you start to think ‘do they really want me?’ or ‘am I being set up to fail?’”