Pay Transparency and Salary Disclosure

What is Pay Transparency?

Pay transparency is, in many places, becoming required by law. This is a win-win: it helps candidates know the expected pay for a given position, and this in turn helps talent acquisition teams, reducing the traditional back-and-forth over salary expectations. Transparency can also increase your applicant pool: one survey shows that 79% of applicants are more likely to apply for a job if the ad lists the salary range, and 81% said they're more likely to apply if the company is transparent about its perks and benefits. At the same time, some potential applicants will choose to not apply if the listed range is below their expectations—this still helps TA teams, since it keeps the candidate pool full of applicants that know and are aligned with the given salary.

A quick clarification regarding the term "pay transparency": "Pay transparency" does not always mean "must include salary in the job description." Many jurisdictions have "pay transparency" laws and that can mean anything from disclosing pay data by gender, to giving applicants the right to ask about salary during the interview process, to prohibiting employers from asking candidates about prior salary. At Datapeople, we care about "pay transparency" compliance when the law specifically says it must be in the job description. In areas that require salary to be included in the job description, Datapeople will prompt you in the editor sidebar to add this information. You can hover over the text to see more information about the specific legislation that requires this information. Read more about Datapeople's pay transparency guidance here.

One quick caveat about including salary in the job description: while candidates generally indicate that they're more likely to apply to jobs that list a salary range, a recent study indicates they are less likely to apply if the given range is very wide: large ranges tend to make candidates view the employer as "dishonest" and "disingenuous." The same study found that candidates were less attracted to companies if a wide salary range was accompanied by a statement saying that final pay would depend on the candidate's qualifications, and more attracted to companies if a wide salary range was accompanied by a statement saying that final pay would depend on the candidate's geographic location. All of this to say: it's not just including salary information that matters; it's including a reasonable range and being careful about how you explain it.

Pro tip: if you want a quick view of jobs that are missing salary information where required by law, check out our Compliance Report!

If you'd like to require your teams to include salary ranges in job descriptions regardless of whether it's required in that geography, you can do so via our Style Guide. Toggling on the option for remote US jobs, for example, will mean that users will be prompted to add salary information in the job description of all remote US jobs.*

*Note that these jobs will not appear in the Compliance Report even if they are missing salary information, since the Compliance Report surfaces only jobs that are noncompliant with specific laws and regulations.

EU Pay Transparency Directive

• The May 2023 EU Pay Transparency Directive states the following: "Such information shall be provided in a manner such as to ensure an informed and transparent negotiation on pay, such as in a published job vacancy notice, prior to the job interview or otherwise." The interpretation here is that employers can disclose salary in the JD, but it's also perfectly fine to disclose it prior to the interview or "otherwise."
• Datapeople's Compliance Report is checking for compliance, which in the case of the EU means that employers can post the salary in the JD or tell candidates before the interview. We have no way of knowing if you're telling candidates the salary range before the interview, so we don't tell you you're out of compliance because we have no way of knowing. You are not required to post the salary in the JD; therefore, we do not flag it in the compliance report.