How do we show the salary? A Q&A with Victoria Ruffy of Little Red Rooster

Victoria Ruffy is Founder of Little Red Rooster, a PR and digital comms agency specialising in audio, design, fashion, home, music and tech – and an accredited We Show the Salary employer. We asked Victoria to tell us more about why they're committed to showing the salary on every job ad.

Why is being transparent about salaries on job ads important to Little Red Rooster?

Because I genuinely cannot think of a good reason not to be. If I know what I am prepared to pay you, why would I make you come to an interview to find out?

Little Red Rooster is built around being very clear about expectations. We guarantee results to our clients. We tell our teams what we expect them to deliver. I think there must be something reciprocal about that. If we expect clarity and accountability from our people, they have every right to expect it from us.

But there's another part of this that matters enormously to me personally, which is social mobility.

If we expect clarity and accountability from our people, they have every right to expect it from us.

I remember an industry where the accepted route in was an internship, and very often an unpaid one. To get your foot on the ladder, you were effectively expected to be able to afford to work for free. Think about who that immediately excluded.

We've come a long way since then, but I think employers still need to look carefully at the invisible rules we create around getting into and progressing through an industry.

Salary secrecy can be one of them.

People shouldn't need to know the rules of the game before they've even been given a chance to play it.

What approach do you take to showing salary info, and why does this approach work well for you?

We show the salary or a genuine salary range. I hate the phrase 'competitive salary'.

Competitive with what? If you have created a role and approved a budget for it, you know roughly what you're going to pay. So say it.

But salary transparency also has to go hand-in-hand with transparency about expectations and progression.

If you have created a role and approved a budget for it, you know roughly what you're going to pay. So say it.

We're a results-led agency. I don't want a culture where people think, "I've done my hours, therefore I've done my job." Equally, I don't want people wondering what they have to do to get to the next level or earn more money.

The deal should be clear on both sides: this is the job, this is what success looks like, this is what we'll pay you and this is how you progress.

That matters particularly if you're trying to create genuine social mobility. You shouldn't need a parent in the industry, a brilliant network or somebody quietly explaining the unwritten rules to understand how to build a career.

We should explain the rules.

How does including salary information on job ads help advance diversity, equity and inclusion across your business?

Social mobility is a big part of this for me. I was the first person on either side of my family to go to university, so I know personally that not everybody starts their career with the same knowledge, connections or understanding of how professional workplaces operate.

I remember those days when internships were unpaid and yet an internship was practically compulsory if you wanted to get onto the career ladder. It was presented as meritocracy: work hard, prove yourself and you'll get your opportunity. But there was an enormous assumption underneath it: that you could afford to work for nothing.

Being good at negotiating your salary and being good at your job are two completely different skills. If two equally brilliant people apply for a role and one confidently asks for £5,000 more while the other doesn't, why should that determine their value to the business?

If your parents couldn't support you while you did that, what were you supposed to do?

We've rightly moved away from much of this, but there are still unwritten rules in professional life that favour people who already understand the system. Salary negotiation can be one of them.

Being good at negotiating your salary and being good at your job are two completely different skills. If two equally brilliant people apply for a role and one confidently asks for £5,000 more while the other doesn't, why should that determine their value to the business?

One person may have grown up surrounded by people in professional careers. They may know what somebody at their level should earn, know that an employer expects them to negotiate and have five people they can ring for advice before accepting an offer. Someone else may be navigating this for the first time.

They might be every bit as intelligent, ambitious and capable. They simply haven't been given the rulebook.

We're saying: this is the role and this is what we believe it is worth. You don't need insider knowledge to work it out. You don't need to guess what we're prepared to pay.

I feel very strongly that employers shouldn't reward people for knowing the rules of a game nobody bothered to explain.

Showing the salary is one very simple way of removing one of those hidden rules.

We're saying: this is the role and this is what we believe it is worth. You don't need insider knowledge to work it out. You don't need to guess what we're prepared to pay. And you don't need to negotiate just to reach a salary we were willing to pay you all along. Now let's talk about whether you're brilliant at the job.

Has showing salaries on job ads had an impact on the organisational culture at Little Red Rooster?

Yes, because transparency makes employers accountable too, and I think that's a good thing.

If I advertise a role tomorrow and somebody already working for me looks at it and thinks, "I'm doing that job and I'm being paid less", I need to be able to explain why.

There may be a perfectly legitimate reason, such as experience, performance or responsibilities, but "I'd rather you hadn't seen the salary" isn't one. And that's one of the most powerful things about salary transparency. It forces you to look at your own house.

If I advertise a role tomorrow and somebody already working for me looks at it and thinks, "I'm doing that job and I'm being paid less", I need to be able to explain why.

It helps make progression less mysterious. I don't want somebody at Little Red Rooster feeling the people who progress are simply the people who know when to ask, shout the loudest or are most comfortable advocating for themselves.

We should be clear about what the next level looks like, what we expect and how somebody gets there.

That's another social mobility issue for me. If progression relies heavily on unwritten rules, the people who already understand those rules have an advantage.

We're not perfect. No business is. But I'd much rather something was exposed so we could address it than maintain an artificial sense of harmony by keeping people in the dark.

Transparency isn't about avoiding difficult conversations. Sometimes it creates them. It's about being confident enough to have them.

And how about the recruitment process – what impact does it have on your recruitment team and on people who apply for a role at Little Red Rooster?

It stops everyone wasting an extraordinary amount of time. I run a business. I don't want my team spending hours interviewing somebody, falling in love with them as a candidate and then discovering we are £10,000 apart on salary.

And I certainly don't think candidates should spend hours preparing for us, potentially taking time off work and going through multiple interviews, only to discover they couldn't afford to accept the job in the first place.

I don't want my team spending hours interviewing somebody, falling in love with them as a candidate and then discovering we are £10,000 apart on salary.

There is an accessibility point here too. Taking half a day off for another interview might be relatively easy for one person and incredibly difficult for another. Recruitment processes cost candidates time and sometimes money. Employers should respect that.

Showing the salary lets people make an informed decision before they invest that time.

It also means the interview can focus on the things I care about: What are you brilliant at? What have you achieved? What do you want to do next? Will you thrive here? What can we teach you? And what are you going to bring to Little Red Rooster?

That's a much better use of everybody's time than playing salary poker.

What advice would you give to employers who aren’t yet showing salary info on their job ads?

I'd ask one question: what exactly are you frightened of?

If you know what you're prepared to pay, tell people. If you're worried candidates will all ask for the top of the range, be clear about what determines where somebody sits within it.

If you're worried candidates will all ask for the top of the range, be clear about what determines where somebody sits within it.

And if you're frightened your existing employees will see the advert and start asking questions about their own salaries, then I think you probably need them to ask those questions.

The advert hasn't created the problem. It's exposed it.

I'd also ask employers to think about this beyond salary.

Every industry has its rules. Who gets in? Who progresses? Who knows what to ask for? Who feels comfortable asking for it? Who has somebody at home telling them how the system works?

We can't talk seriously about social mobility while continuing to rely on unwritten rules that inevitably favour the people who already know them. Businesses have a responsibility to make those rules more visible.

You don't need an enormous HR department or a perfect pay structure to start doing that. Work out what the role is worth, create a sensible range and publish it.

Treat candidates like adults. Tell them what you expect. Tell them what you'll pay. Tell them how they can progress.

Talent is everywhere. Knowledge of the rules isn't. And businesses shouldn't confuse the two.