Should companies be posting salaries?

Many of my clients have internal recruitment teams who will use job postings to fill many positions at the entry level or managerial level and there is some interesting data that is starting to surface in the race to engage the best talent at these levels.  It is related to a subject that is starting to be discussed more often and that is the concept of companies becoming transparent about employee salary.

Sites such as PayScale, Glassdoor and LinkedIn are already doing more to inform potential candidates about salary, and we may see that expand even more.  Employee pay has always been a confidential topic in the workplace but is that going to continue into the future?  By not disclosing pay upfront, many candidates (largely younger generations) become uneasy, and it also leaves current employees distrustful of companies.  Most people incorrectly believe they're being underpaid relative to their market position.

Here are some interesting findings: 

1.  According to LinkedIn, 73% of companies are still not ready to share salary information during the hiring process.  Of the 27% of respondents who said their company is transparent about pay, 67% share salary ranges with candidates early in the hiring process, 59% share salary ranges with employees, and 48% share ranges publicly on job posts. Those who do share salary ranges, cite many of the benefits with most stating that their employees having a more communicative relationship with their managers where they will be more likely to verbalize if they are thinking about leaving the company.  The most common benefit that was stated was that it speeds up the hiring process.

2.  According to LinkedIn, in addition to streamlining negotiations and filtering out applicants who would eventually drop out of the process, job posts with salary information will get more traffic than the same post without salary information.  If you think this might be just a LinkedIn sales pitch?  Think again.  Google has also stated that if you want your jobs to show up higher on search results, you better have a salary in the structured data field.

3.  Finally, salary transparency advocates believe that disclosure helps ensure fair pay across an organization.  Companies that disclose salary claim that it is a competitive advantage, that it is the correct thing to do, and it meets the desires of both employees and candidates.  As mentioned, studies have always shown that the majority of employees assume they are not being paid fairly and many have concerns/doubts that their managers are equipped to address disparities. 

Food for thought!

Farewell,

Mike