The Sunday Times covers the case for salary transparency on job ads

Salary transparency made it into this weekend's Sunday Times, with associate business editor Hannah Prevett examining whether it's time to make pay ranges a legal requirement on job ads.

The article is paywalled but if you have a subscription you can read it here.

At We Show the Salary we know that lots of employers recognise the importance of showing salary on job ads – and the benefits this practice brings to jobseekers, employees and the wider organisation.

We also understand the barriers that hold some employers back from committing to showing salary info on 100% of their job ads (or in some cases, on any job ads at all). And it often comes down to concerns that internal pay discrepancies will be exposed.

What's interesting is that the government's proposal to make salary information mandatory on job ads seems to be nudging employers to be more honest about the reasons why they don't already show the salary.

The article quotes a chief executive of a marketing firm who says his company avoids publishing salaries partly because doing so could expose pay differences among existing staff – which could "trigger potential HR issues".

It's not often that insights like this make it out into the open – so it's good that we're starting to hear people say the quiet part out loud. If you know that pay differences within your organisation could cause problems if they came to light, that's not a reason to keep salaries secret – it's a reason to do the work and fix those differences.

Acknowledging this can feel uncomfortable, but for some employers it's the first step towards change.