“Never discuss your salary,” is advice we’ve all heard, helping to shroud money matters in a cloud of secrecy, and it is easy to see who the silence benefits: employers. When we don’t talk about pay, discrepancies can’t come to light, age-old barriers don’t get broken down and the status quo remains.
Now though, things are changing. In March 2022, the UK government announced a new initiative designed to improve salary transparency in the job application process. Primarily aimed at bringing parity to pay for women, the scheme will roll out to participating employers which will run pilots aimed at closing salary gaps by publishing salaries on all job adverts.
The initiative was launched by the minister for women, Baroness Stedman-Scott, who said, “We believe that increased salary transparency will build on positive evidence of the role information can play when it comes to empowering women in the workplace. It is essential that we keep women at the forefront of the levelling up agenda as we recover from the pandemic and rebuild together.”
So will it work? In countries where similar initiatives have already been implemented, results have been broadly positive. In Canada, the federal government passed the Pay Equity Act in December 2018 and new figures show that the wage divide between men and women working in the health and care sector has almost halved over the last decade.
The US state of Colorado instituted the Equal Pay for Equal Work Act in January 2021 which requires online job listings to include compensation information. Later this year, New York City plans to follow suit with a pay disclosure law, requiring companies with more than four employees to post salary ranges too.
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While it’s certainly an operational challenge for HR leaders and businesses to provide the data, a survey from workforce analytics companies XpertHR and Gapsquare discovered that over 80 per cent of US employers who did pay equity audits uncovered equity gaps in their organisations, which underscores the requirement in the first place.
Another important part of pay parity is the ability to negotiate on an even footing. In the US, it is now illegal in 21 states for employers to request salary history information from job applicants. In the UK, Baroness Stedman-Scott noted that, “It has a particularly negative impact on women’s confidence, with 58 per cent of women saying they felt they had received a lower salary offer than they would have if the question had not been asked during the application process.”
Time will tell if the government’s salary transparency measures will bear fruit. In the meantime, here are some roles to consider if you’re thinking about making a career more. There are plenty more to discover on the GrowthBusiness job board.
Senior Manager, Information Security (IGA), Indeed
Salary range: £129,000 – £187,000 a year.
As Senior Manager of Identity Governance & Administration (IGA) you will provide leadership, mentorship and technical direction for a diverse group of geographically dispersed, highly proficient and motivated security professionals. You’ll set the strategy and direction for identity and access governance as the EMEA regional lead for all IAM services. You will lead managers of identity governance, access governance, and provisioning operations and drive the access certification programme. Apply now.
Software Engineer, 10x Banking
Salary range: £70,000 – £110,000 a year.
As a Software Development Engineer you will be part of an open, collaborative and innovative environment and will work on a platform responsible for the money of millions of people. 10x Banking’s tech stack is modern, and it is not shy about using the right tool for each job. Between greenfield product development and raising the bar for existing features, you will have interesting challenges to solve every day. You will need a deep understanding of good practices in software development, experience with event streaming technologies and will have worked in highly distributed, low latency and high availability systems. Apply now.
Business Analyst Manager, eBay Inc.
Salary range: Not available, however eBay offers a variety of comprehensive and competitive benefit programs including maternal and paternal leave, paid sabbatical, and plans to help ensure your financial security. The company is looking for a Business Analytics Manager to join its UK ads team, with responsibility for delivering business analytics. This role will be developing and delivering useful analytics insights to support business performance and develop a deeper understanding of business drivers and opportunities for growing eBay ads products revenue. You’ll need five-plus years’ experience as a business insights manager or insight analyst preferably within advertising, e-commerce, media, digital marketing or a consultancy environment. Apply now.
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