Job seekers today expect more information upfront than they used to, and salary is top of the list. Advertising a "competitive salary" no longer cuts it. Roles advertised with a clear salary range consistently attract more applicants than those without one, and that gap is only widening as candidates become more selective about where they spend their time.
This shift in expectations is now being matched by a shift in policy. The UK government is consulting on new pay transparency requirements that could change what employers are legally required to disclose in job adverts. Nothing is law yet, but the direction of travel is clear, and employers who prepare now will be better placed than those who wait.
What does salary transparency mean?
Salary transparency means giving candidates clear information about what a role pays before they apply, rather than leaving them to guess or find out deep into the process. In practice, this can mean stating an exact salary or providing a defined range based on experience or seniority.
For example, a range spanning £20,000 or more gives candidates almost as little to go on as no figure at all, and can look like an attempt to avoid specifics rather than a genuine effort at transparency.
What changes are happening in UK law?
Nothing has been written into law yet. The government has launched a formal consultation on wide-ranging reforms to the UK's equal pay framework, which sits under the Equality Act 2010. Among the proposals is a requirement for employers to disclose pay and benefits information in job adverts, or to provide it to candidates before interview where no advert exists.
The consultation closes on 27 October 2026. It has not yet been decided whether employers will need to publish an exact salary, a range, or a benchmark rate, and the government has said it will allow an extended implementation period before any new measures take effect. Realistically, this means employers should not expect binding legislation before 2027 at the earliest.
This proposal sits alongside a separate but related development. Since April 2026, employers with 250 or more employees have had the option to publish a voluntary equality action plan alongside their gender pay gap data, with these plans expected to become mandatory from spring 2027. Increasing pay transparency is one of the recommended actions within that guidance, and any published plans are visible to employees, unions, investors and the press.
Taken together, these developments suggest that formal pay transparency requirements are coming to the UK in some form, even though the detail is still being worked out.
Why is this happening now?
Candidate attitudes towards pay have shifted considerably in recent years. Being asked to apply, interview and negotiate without knowing whether a role even meets basic expectations is increasingly seen as a poor use of time, particularly among younger candidates entering the workforce with different expectations around openness and fairness at work.
This cultural shift has been building for some time, and the government's consultation reflects it rather than creates it. Even without a legal requirement in place, employers who continue to withhold salary information risk being overlooked by candidates who now treat a visible salary as the baseline, not the exception.
Why publishing a salary range benefits employers
Being upfront about pay is not just about compliance or candidate preference. It also has practical benefits for employers.
Candidates who apply already know the role is within their expectations, which reduces time wasted on interviews that end in a mismatch over pay. It also removes an awkward negotiation late in the process, when both sides have already invested time and expectations can be harder to reset. And it signals openness, which increasingly forms part of how candidates judge an employer's culture before they have even had a conversation.
Common employer concerns
Employers are often hesitant about publishing salary information, and the concerns are usually practical rather than unreasonable.
Some worry that a published range will be visible to competitors, or that it will draw attention to internal pay gaps between employees doing similar work. Others are simply unsure how to set a range that is competitive without being unrealistic. These are worth thinking through properly rather than avoiding the conversation altogether. In most cases, a well-researched, honestly set range causes far fewer problems than no information at all.
How to set a salary range that works
A useful range is specific enough to be meaningful and realistic enough to be credible. Benchmarking against similar roles in the sector and region is a sensible starting point, followed by grouping candidates into bands based on experience rather than presenting one enormous range that tries to cover every possibility.
It is also worth revisiting ranges regularly rather than setting them once and leaving them unchanged, particularly in sectors where pay expectations are moving quickly.
How Lets Recruit can help
Getting salary positioning right is one of the areas where a recruitment partner can add real value, from benchmarking roles accurately to advising on how a range will land with candidates in your sector. If you're preparing to advertise a role and want to get the salary conversation right from the outset,
Get in touch with the Lets Recruit team.
Tel: 0333 577 7157
Email: hello@letsrecruit.co.uk
