2018. LinkedIn conducts a study about the job description. They want to find out which sections are crucial for the candidates and which ones… not so much. 450members are shown an example of a job description and asked to highlight the parts they think are the most important and helpful. Results? The salary range appears in red light, emanating a conspicuous light.

Numbers

According to the No Fluff Jobs data, as many as 91% of candidates expect information about salary ranges in the job description! To be honest, as an IT company, we are not that surprised. In most IT roles, providing salary range details is already a norm however portal pracuj.pl states that the amount of the salary is still a rarity in job offers. Another survey conducted by HRRebels showed that every 5 of 444 managers and HR experts indicated that salary ranges are available to job applicants in their company. As many as 78% of respondents admitted that in their company, newly hired people are able to get higher salaries than long-term employees in the same positions. That may be one horrible reason why companies do not want informed consumers.

Pros and Cons

Here are some of the pros and cons of having a salary range in a job description according to the contract recruiter:

Salary equality

Hannah Morgan, a job search strategist stated that “when every company lists salary ranges, we will be closer to salary equality”. Salary inequality is a huge problem worldwide. The gender pay gap case in the EU has only changed minimally over the last decade. Women still earn 14.1% on average less per hour than men. Why?

European Commission has delivered an article concerning the topic. According to them, women are paid less because:

1. There is an overrepresentation of women, especially in relatively low-paying sectors; “highly feminized jobs tend to be systematically undervalued”,
2. Women have more work hours per week than men but they spend more hours on unpaid work,
3. There is a position in the hierarchy: less than 8% of top companies’ CEOs are women,
4. There is discrimination.

“Due to alack of pay transparency, pay discrimination often goes undetected, and victims face difficulties in claiming redress”

we can read in a briefing from the European Parliament called “Equal pay for equal work between men and women”. On the 4^th of March 2021, the EuropeanCommission adopted a proposal concerning pay transparency measures. The proposed directive focuses on measures to ensure pay transparency and better access to justice for victims of pay discrimination.

2017 Eurobarometer survey brought to our attention that seven out of ten Europeans(women and men) think that women earn less than men. The gender pay gap in the EU is still at a dreadful 13% (Eurostat, 2020) so the implementation remains a challenge. The proposal requires member states to establish tools or methodologies to assess and compare the value of work. Job-seekers would have a right to information about the pay range of posts they apply for.

On the 5^th of April 2022, the European Parliament voted to start negotiations with the EU governments on salary transparency legislation.

#szanujsiebie – No Fluff Jobs

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On Friday, under the hashtag #respectyourself, there has been the No Fluff Jobs debate promoting open pay and salary transparency. The entire event, called Transparency OnlineDebate, was dedicated to a change; the change that starts with us.

Many aspects of transparency were raised during the debate, including the fact that it should be a universal value for companies. According to the participants in the debate, small companies will be able to adapt more quickly to the new needs for transparent remuneration.

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Our voice

We, as WORKITNOW, subscribe to open salaries! For years we have adhered to the principle that transparency and honesty in action are the foundation of healthy business relationships.

As an IT company, we have been especially cautious about including salary ranges in job descriptions. We would like to know the salary ranges that not all clients provide. It is tricky to predict what a particular company is going to offer, thus why we rely on what the situation is like in other companies. We have to start talking more about salary ranges and why it is that important to be open about the topic.