UK plans mandatory salary disclosure in job adverts, echoing EU

The UK government has announced plans to force employers in England, Wales, and Scotland to disclose salary details in job advertisements. The proposal, aimed at overhauling anti-discrimination laws, would require companies to share pay information either in the advert or in writing before an interview.

Ministers are launching a consultation running until October to determine the exact scope of the new requirements. Officials will ask industry groups whether adverts must state a specific figure, a pay range, or a "benchmark rate". The consultation will also consider whether additional compensation, such as bonuses, must be included.

The Cabinet Office framed the policy as a tool to improve the hiring process for businesses by weeding out candidates with "misaligned pay expectations". Citing academic studies, the government also argued that transparency prevents "unequal outcomes". "When pay is opaque, salary decisions can be influenced by stereotypes — such as stereotypes of women, ethnic minorities, or disabled people," it stated in a policy document.

For European businesses, the proposals represent a partial convergence with the EU’s pay transparency rules. Under EU law, large employers with more than 100 workers must disclose the initial pay or pay range for new roles in job adverts or prior to interviews. However, the UK draft notably diverges from the European framework by omitting a ban on asking candidates about their salary history.

This regulatory gap means multinational companies operating on both sides of the channel will face a fragmented compliance landscape. While they must suppress salary history questions for their EU-based hiring, those practices will remain legally permissible in Great Britain.

Mandatory pay transparency is not currently required in the UK, though voluntary disclosure has been increasing. Research by the CIPD, an HR industry body, indicates the practice is far more common in the public sector and charities than in private firms. The CIPD has previously cautioned that current voluntary disclosures are not always "fully transparent", noting that some published pay ranges exceed £10,000.

The legislative picture in Northern Ireland remains unresolved. A regional rights watchdog has argued that the EU’s pay transparency rules should automatically apply in Northern Ireland under the Windsor Framework agreement negotiated by former prime minister Rishi Sunak. The Northern Ireland Executive has so far declined to state whether it will adopt the EU standards or align with the new proposals for Great Britain.