This morning (6th November), it was announced that the government intends to legislate requiring employers to publish salary information in job adverts.
The Prime Minister has indicated that legislation mandating this will be laid in Parliament 'as soon as possible', and in the meantime the government would strongly encourage employers to adopt these practices in their own recruitment processes.
The announcement has been made just a week after the Cabinet Office consultation on equal pay and pay discrimination closed. The consultation included questions on pay transparency including questions on salary information in job adverts.
You can find the BRC's response to this consultation here.
In our response, we were supportive of the principle of these pay transparency measures with the strong caveat that employers must be allowed to publish salary ranges rather than specific salaries, not least to account for varying levels of experience.
It is currently unclear whether the government intends to mandate specific salaries or if salary ranges will suffice. In the PM's press release, it states that: "The Government will bring forward legislation to require employers to include salary information on job adverts as soon as possible, with further details on scope, required information, implementation, and enforcement to be set out in due course."
Please let us know your thoughts on the announcement and if you have particular reflections or concerns that you wish for us to convey to the Cabinet Office. Get in touch with me - ben.george@brc.org.uk.
