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Friday is International Equal Pay Day. By next year you may have to put the salary in every job ad.

ended 18. September 2026

Friday 18 September is International Equal Pay Day. https://www.un.org/en/observances/equal-pay-day It lands while the government consults on forcing employers to publish pay in job adverts.

The consultation closes at 5pm on 27 October. It proposes salary in the advert, or in writing before interview where there is no advert. https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/equal-pay-and-pay-discrimination

It also floats bringing back equal pay questionnaires and setting up a new equal pay enforcement unit. https://www.personneltoday.com/hr/pay-transparency-employers-to-publish-salaries-in-job-adverts-under-equal-pay-reforms/

There is no small employer exemption on the table. The EU version applies to firms with 100 or more staff. The UK paper does not commit either way.

Pay secrecy is a leaky roof. You can ignore it right up until the day it rains.

Put the number in the ad. And if you think this one will not reach you, respond before it gets written without you.

We'd like your views:

  • Should every job ad carry a salary, or is that the employer's business alone?
  • Would publishing pay close the gender gap, or just push everyone to the top of the range?
  • Protect the worker or protect the business: who should this rule be built around?
  • Small firms have no HR department. Exempt them, or is that just a loophole waiting to be used?
  • Have you advertised salaries openly? What actually happened to your applications?

3 responses from the Newspage community

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Kate UnderwoodVerified
Founder & Chief People Strategist at Kate Underwood HR and Training
Every small business owner I know says the same thing. They would love to pay everyone fairly, they just do not want the row. So the salary stays out of the ad, three people doing the same job end up on three different numbers, and nobody can explain why. That is not a pay strategy. That is a mess you inherited from yourself. Putting a range in the advert costs you nothing but nerve, and it saves you a fortune in interviews with people who were never going to accept the money. Do it before the law makes you.
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Tony SanchezVerified
Founder at Bridging Loan Directory
If the salary cannot meet someone’s needs, both sides should find that out before an interview.

As a small-business owner, I see publishing a realistic salary range as a way to save time. Small firms have less capacity to spend hours interviewing someone only to discover they were never going to agree on pay.

In commission-based roles, the basic salary and potential earnings should be clearly separated. An attractive headline figure is little help if the applicant cannot tell how much is guaranteed.

Publishing a range will not, by itself, resolve unequal pay. Employers should also be able to explain what determines where someone sits within it. I would favour simple requirements and practical guidance for small businesses. You should not need an HR department to explain what a job pays.
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Kathryn Read
Business consultant at Kathryn Read Consulting
It's unrealistic to expect that publishing salaries will close the gender gap. Yes I believe that salaries should be published in ads, but that doesn't mean it will reduce the inequalities that exist. Yes it helps in so far as you don't bother to apply if it's way out of what you are looking for, but in most cases companies are willing to pay more if they really want a candidate.

I'm based in Austria, and we have this regulation since years now - all that happens is employers state the minimum for the role and that they are prepared to pay more for the right person and experience. Effectively nothing changes, but somebody at the top feels better about setting a regulation in the right direction.