At Adzuna, we’re on a mission to make the job market fairer and more transparent. Our data team looked at 80 million job ads advertised on our website in the past six years to provide a comprehensive overview of the evolution of salary transparency in the UK and across the globe, and we’re delighted to announce the launch of our whitepaper Show me the money: Salary transparency in 2022.
Only three in five UK job ads disclosing salary
During our research, we’ve discovered that the UK has the highest rate of salary disclosure out of 19 job markets analysed in 2022, with three in five job ads disclosing an intended salary or salary range. That said, over the course of the last six years, there has been barely any progress, and the country is showing early signs of a slowdown, with the proportion of advertised vacancies including salary slipping to a six-year low.
Diving deeper, North South divide in salary transparency. Yorkshire & Humber is most straight talking with 63% of job ads disclosing pay, while London (55%), Scotland (49%) and Northern Ireland (28%) are the most secretive regions. Interestingly, London has been cited as having both the worst ethnicity pay gap and worst gender pay gap, suggesting a correlation between a lack of transparency and inequality.
| Region | Proportion of vacancies advertising a salary, 2022 | Proportion of vacancies advertising a salary, 2021 |
|---|---|---|
| Yorkshire and The Humber | 62.9% | 72.2% |
| West Midlands (England) | 62.7% | 71.8% |
| East Midlands (England) | 62.7% | 72.9% |
| North West (England) | 59.3% | 68.9% |
| South East (England) | 58.8% | 69.3% |
| South West (England) | 58.3% | 67.2% |
| North East (England) | 58.2% | 66.0% |
| Wales | 57.9% | 63.2% |
| East | 55.8% | 68.4% |
| London | 54.8% | 54.0% |
| Scotland | 48.8% | 53.6% |
| Northern Ireland | 27.6% | 27.3% |
Sector-wise, Charity & Voluntary is the most transparent sector, while Creative & Design is the most secretive. About one in three job ads of creative and design roles featured salary information in 2022, down from 48% a year ago.
Other worst offending sectors include Scientific & QA, with just 34.1% of job ads disclosing a salary, and Retail (37.2%). The Energy sector has seen the biggest fall in the proportion of job ads with a salary, down -20.6 percentage points to 38.6%, followed by Creative & Design. Healthcare & Nursing fell third fastest, slipping -10.9 percentage points to 60.2% in 2022, followed by IT which was down -10.8 percentage points. Falling transparency in these latter two sectors could have consequences on hiring, as companies failing to disclose pay rates could miss out on candidates amid skills shortages.
| Sector | Proportion of vacancies advertising a salary, 2022 | Proportion of vacancies advertising a salary, 2021 |
|---|---|---|
| Charity & Voluntary | 87.8% | 88.4% |
| Social work | 75.9% | 83.5% |
| Manufacturing | 75.3% | 80.2% |
| Graduate | 73.7% | 73.1% |
| Logistics & Warehouse | 72.2% | 79.9% |
| Admin | 71.8% | 71.6% |
| Teaching | 71.3% | 78.5% |
| Property | 70.4% | 76.8% |
| Maintenance | 68.8% | 72.4% |
| HR & Recruitment | 66.7% | 62.9% |
| Sales | 65.2% | 64.3% |
| Customer Services | 64.9% | 59.6% |
| Engineering | 64.4% | 68.4% |
| Trade & Construction | 61.0% | 60.5% |
| Healthcare & Nursing | 60.2% | 71.1% |
| Travel | 60.2% | 65.3% |
| Accounting & Finance | 51.9% | 58.0% |
| Hospitality & Catering | 51.1% | 54.7% |
| Legal | 50.7% | 55.1% |
| Consultancy | 48.6% | 51.7% |
| PR | 47.7% | 50.4% |
| Domestic Help & Cleaning | 44.0% | 54.0% |
| IT | 43.1% | 53.9% |
| Energy | 38.6% | 59.2% |
| Retail | 37.2% | 44.9% |
| Scientific & QA | 34.1% | 39.7% |
| Creative & Design | 32.3% | 47.5% |
Adzuna launches global salary transparency whitepaper
The special edition of our whitepaper Show me the money: Salary transparency in 2022 not only shows our commitment to making the job market fairer but also our ambition to close the gender pay gap. It is part of our campaign to call for legal reform to reshape the job search landscape.
Sign the petition now and make putting salaries in job ads a legal requirement.
In this whitepaper, you can find stats and detailed analysis of:
- Global ranking
- Salary transparency in the UK over time
- Salary transparency in the UK by region
- Salary transparency in the UK by sector
- Salary transparency in the UK by seniority
- Benefits for employers who promoted salary transparency
- Jobseekers’ stance
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