LinkedIn Job Ad Analysis: Why Are Employers Slow To Embrace Salary Transparency?
Our research shows:
- 36% of live job ads we analyzed in the US didn’t include salary information
- More than half (53%) of live job ads in the UK omitted salary information
- 50% of finance roles in the US, and 73% of finance roles in the UK didn’t include salary details
- In the US, the construction sector is by far the most likely to miss out on salary information from job ads (94%)
- In the US, the sectors that are the most likely to include salary information in job ads are recruitment (only 11% didn’t include it) closely followed by media & entertainment (18%) and telecommunications (18%)
- In the UK, businesses in the media and entertainment sectors are the least likely to include salary information in job ads (84%)
- Ads looking for junior-level roles in the US are the least likely to include salary information (39% of associate-level roles and 37% of junior positions didn’t include salary details) compared to just 18% of senior-level roles
Salary transparency is, sadly, still a huge problem in job markets across the world.
Albeit one of the most important factors that can determine whether a candidate will accept a job or not, the majority of businesses are still reluctant to share the most vital piece of information in a job advert.
However, it could be at the detriment of hiring some of the best talent. In Adobe’s recent Future Workforce Study, 85% of upcoming college seniors and recent college graduates said they are less likely to apply for a job if the company does not disclose the salary range in the job posting.
In some US states, it is now the law to disclose salary information in job postings. New York’s pay transparency law, which came into effect in September 2023, requires employers with four or more employees to disclose salary information in job postings.
Washington, D.C.'s pay transparency law applies to employers of all sizes and requires that public job listings include the minimum and maximum salary or hourly pay. Studies show that these laws are already having a positive impact on the gender pay gap, reducing it by 20-40%.
In the UK, research shows only 50% of employers include salary details on job ads.
We wanted to delve into the problem a little deeper, to get a real understanding of the current state of salary transparency in the USA and the UK, and the industries that are the most and least likely to share salary information in job postings.
So, we analyzed 8,000 LinkedIn paid job postings from August 2024 in the USA and in the UK across a range of sectors, hybrid, remote and office-based roles, and varying job levels.
LinkedIn is one of the most widely used social platforms for both hiring teams and job seekers. It’s become so ubiquitous that most recruiting software on the market integrates with it, allowing recruiters to directly input salary information into job posts they create. With this level of ease, you’d think salaries would be a standard part of a job ad. So what did we find?
USA Findings
The research revealed a surprising 36% of the live job adverts analyzed didn’t include salary details, which raises questions about whether employers are really embracing pay transparency.
Business sector breakdown
Looking at specific business sectors, our research shows that roles in the construction industry are the least likely to include a salary in a job posting (a huge 94% of positions are missing salary details).
The education industry closely follows behind, with 80% of roles omitting salary information, and 74% of insurance roles.
Interestingly, half (50%) of finance roles didn’t include salary information either.
The top 10 sectors that are the most likely to omit salary information in job postings are:
| Business Sector | % of job listings that omit salary |
| Construction | 94% |
| Education | 80% |
| Insurance | 74% |
| Hospitality | 64% |
| Finance | 50% |
| Consulting | 46% |
| Healthcare | 45% |
| Real estate | 44% |
| Logistics | 42% |
| Non-profit | 40% |
So why are businesses in the construction sector so hesitant to share salary information?
In the U.S. a lot of construction is done through contracting. That means that the scope of the job is generally determined beforehand. Therefore, there is a budget the job has to fit within and so the pay from one job to another may differ.
The other factor to consider here is who is being hired. In some cases, organizations in this industry hire people who are not U.S. citizens or are not here legally, and therefore pay them less. Immigrants in the U.S. illegally make up about 20% of the construction workforce by some estimates.
In states like New York or California where unions still have a presence and are the contract holders for many of these jobs, this is less likely to be the case.
But, when you think about states where they’ve had a building boom in recent decades, places like Florida, Texas, and New Mexico, there typically aren’t many regulations on businesses and unions don’t exist or are few and far between. So, who the contractors are hiring and what workers are actually being paid probably isn’t something a business usually wants to be public, particularly for lower level roles.
On the flip side, the sectors that are the most likely to include salary information are:
| Business Sector | % of job listings that omit salary |
| Recruitment | 11% |
| Media & entertainment | 18% |
| Telecommunications | 18% |
| Food & beverage | 20% |
| Technology | 20% |
| Marketing | 24% |
| Agriculture | 26% |
| Government | 29% |
| Automotive | 30% |
| Customer service | 32% |
Breakdown by State and Region
In the US, 8 states have enacted and 15 states are considering salary range transparency laws.
The states that have enacted these laws are Maryland, Colorado, Connecticut, Nevada, Rhode Island, Washington, California, and New York.
However, our research shows that a lot of businesses within these states are still shying away from including salary information in postings.
For example, 56% of job postings in Maryland did not include a salary, placing it just outside the top 10 that do not include it.
31% of postings from businesses in Washington DC did not include them, and 17% of them did not in Colorado.
The top 10 states with the lowest salary transparency are:
| State/Territory | % of job listings that omit salary |
| Alabama | 70% |
| Arizona | 67% |
| North Carolina | 66% |
| Michigan | 64% |
| Minnesota | 60% |
| Georgia | 60% |
| Virginia | 60% |
| Florida | 59% |
| Wisconsin | 59% |
| Massachusetts | 59% |
The top 10 states with the highest salary transparency are:
| State/Territory | % of job listings that omit salary |
| California | 9% |
| Washington | 10% |
| New York | 10% |
| Colorado | 17% |
| Oklahoma | 28% |
| District of Columbia | 31% |
| Illinois | 34% |
| Nevada | 42% |
| Tennessee | 43% |
| Missouri | 46% |
Honing in on the businesses in US regions that are the most or least likely to include salary information, our research shows businesses in the South, and Midwest are far more likely to leave salary details out than those in the North East and West.
| US region | % of job listings that omit salary information |
| South | 55% |
| Midwest | 49% |
| Northeast | 23% |
| West | 16% |
Role seniority breakdown
When it comes to seniority, our research shows that junior-level roles are far less likely to include salary information than senior-level positions.
| Seniority | % of job listings that omit salary information |
| Associate | 39% |
| Junior | 37% |
| Mid-Level | 36% |
| Director | 30% |
| Manager | 27% |
| Lead | 18% |
| Senior | 18% |
UK Findings
The UK currently does not have transparency laws in place, while the notion of equal pay has been established in law since 1970. Gender pay gap reporting requirements came into effect in 2017, aiming to reduce pay differences between genders. This legally requires employers with more than 250 staff in England, Wales and Scotland to report annually on the gender pay gap within their organisation.
From our findings, more than half (a staggering 53%) of the 4,000 UK job postings we analyzed didn’t include salary information.
Business sector breakdown
Analyzing the specific industries in the UK that omitted salary information in job postings, a huge majority (84%) of the job vacancies in media and entertainment did not include them.
78% of vacant roles in the healthcare industry missed out on salary information, and 73% of roles in finance didn’t include it.
| Job sector | % of job listings that omit salary information |
| Media and Entertainment | 84% |
| Healthcare | 78% |
| Technology | 74% |
| Finance | 73% |
| Insurance | 73% |
| Marketing | 70% |
| Utilities | 70% |
| Logistics | 69% |
| Food and beverage | 69% |
| Consulting | 68% |
Why is it so common for roles in the media & entertainment industry to omit salary information?
Typically, junior-level roles in this industry tend to offer a very low introductory salary.
Salaries can start from £12k a year, whilst mid to late editor positions earn somewhere in the region of £35k.
To keep people interested in ‘chasing the dragon’ of high-wage punditry, it’s unlikely organizations will publicly disclose that a majority of people in the field are, let’s face it, going to struggle to pay their bills.
On the other hand, the top 10 sectors with the highest salary transparency are:
| Job sector | % of job listings that omit salary information |
| Education | 12% |
| Telecommunications | 20% |
| Manufacturing | 32% |
| Customer service | 33% |
| Government | 38% |
| Real estate | 39% |
| Automotive | 43% |
| Nonprofit | 46% |
| Construction | 50% |
| Legal | 53% |
In the UK, jobs in London are the least likely to include salary information (74%), closely followed by Edinburgh (54%) and Bristol and Manchester (52%).
Taking a deeper look into businesses in the regions that are the most or least likely to include salary information in the UK, those in Greater London are by far the least likely (72%) to do so. Outside of the capital, almost half of the businesses we analyzed in Scotland and the South East are likely to leave out salary details (45%).
| UK region | % of job listings that omit salary information |
| Greater London | 72% |
| Scotland | 45% |
| South East | 45% |
| Yorkshire and Humber | 43% |
| North West | 40% |
| South West | 38% |
| East of England | 37% |
| East Midlands | 35% |
| North East | 35% |
| Wales | 33% |
| West Midlands | 31% |
Unlike in the US, senior roles in the UK are less likely to include salary information, compared to junior-level roles.
| Seniority | % of job listings that omit salary information |
| Senior | 79% |
| Manager | 78% |
| Director | 76% |
| Associate | 70% |
| Mid-level | 59% |
| Lead | 57% |
| Junior | 40% |
So why are so many businesses still reluctant to be transparent about salaries?
There are a lot of reasons, but it primarily comes down to the desire to create a competitive market and the fact that organizations have paid women less than men, and minorities not as much as whites for a long time.
It has saved businesses a lot of money. By publicly defining what a role is worth, businesses signal how they value the occupant of the position but they also potentially drive away talent which have bigger salary expectations.
Essentially, it feels like a bidding war to some organizations. But not having it contributes to pay gaps as employers can offer certain candidates less without any transparency and we know that women are seen differently than men if they try to negotiate, and therefore they don’t.
A salary is also personal information, so social norms naturally tell us it’s ‘impolite’ to talk about that. Sometimes it’s just a cultural thing. In the States, we don’t talk about it because historically, that’s not something we do. In the workplace, the thinking is that it creates a lot of discomfort and awkwardness between people. There can be jealousy and potential retaliation from bosses.
But the real reason is employers don’t want you to talk about it. If you talk about it, you might find that you’re underpaid and want to leave. You might find that you make more than your teammates and develop an inflated sense of self-importance. It’s basically as simple as organizations don’t trust their people to be adults and make wise decisions with this information.
Has there been any improvement in salary transparency in recent years?
There has been a little bit of improvement in some U.S. states where laws are in place, although enforcement of those laws is still uncertain. Also, in some industries where it’s more the norm to have it.
But it’s still lacking for the most part and as DEI practices come under assault, so then do practices that drive toward pay equity in many cases, pay transparency included.
The impact of omitting salaries from job postings
So what’s the problem with listing a salary as ‘competitive’? Well, the issue is that it doesn’t actually mean anything. Competitive to who? In comparison to what exactly?
Most often it's used to adopt salary practices that aren't going to yield much in the way of employee satisfaction. They're probably on the lower end of the competitive spectrum and the least open to negotiation. And, it creates a problem with pay equity.
As long as businesses are not open and transparent about how much they pay for roles, there is no set industry benchmark to follow, so they can essentially make up a salary in order to attract talent.
That’s all well and good until it creates an imbalance within companies.
Why do we need to embrace pay transparency?
It’s important for a few reasons. One is that businesses can save themselves time by attracting people who are interested in the job, and knowing what they’re paying for it. This saves time in the negotiation phase, it ensures better buy-in from new hires and when people feel fairly paid, they tend to be more invested and more productive.
But, a big reason that needs to be talked about more is that trust between employers and employees/candidates is low. According to research, 60% of U.S.employees and 57% of U.K. employees would switch companies to one with more pay transparency.
When all is said and done, businesses exist to make money, but for too long it’s felt to a lot of employees as if the benefit to the bottom line has come at the cost of the people who create the bottom line result.
So, people are skeptical of businesses that don’t at least tell them what they’ll be paid, which is the primary driver of why we work in the first place. Yes, it’s important for pay equity/closing pay gaps and in attracting talent, but businesses may not feel it’s their job to drive pay equity and they’ll likely get interested applicants either way.
By advocating for transparency and clarity in job advertisements, we can create a more equitable job market where candidates feel empowered to pursue opportunities that meet their financial expectations, and they are paid for the value they will bring to a business.
What should candidates do if a business does not disclose the salary of an open vacancy?
It should be one of the first questions you ask if you get an interview.
I’d move them to the bottom of the priority pile in terms of submitting resumes and filling out applications, but once you do, if you get the call, inquire about the money immediately. No sense wasting time going further if you’ve already determined you’re not interested in the pay.
The very fabric of the relationship between you and an employer is your pay. If you don’t feel you can trust it, you’ll leave. The fundamental needs that have to be satisfied in an employer-employee relationship are simple: Pay, benefits, PTO.
In the UK, it’s likely to pay and PTO first and foremost since the need for health benefits isn’t as great. Everything after those fundamental needs might make you more competitive and might improve satisfaction or engagement, but it’s unlikely to make or break the candidate’s decision. Pay is the most important of these fundamental needs. It’s why we work.
Methodology
We scraped 4,201 live job adverts on LinkedIn in the US, and 3,988 in the UK during August 2024. These were “paid for” jobs and any unpaid or voluntary roles were removed.
We then categorized these by geographical location and region of the hiring business as well as where the role is based (in-office, remote, or hybrid).
OpenAI was used to identify the business sector and job seniority using prompts for the job title, company name, and job description. This was also used to identify if the role included salary information only within the job description, with further manual checks to verify the information.
We then calculated the % of adverts that did and did not include salary information.
