Salaries in Job Adverts Law: What the ‘Say What You Pay’ Plan Actually Changes

The salaries in job adverts law announced by the UK government on 5 November 2026 is not in force yet — and that distinction matters more than the headline. Prime Minister Andy Burnham confirmed that employers will be legally required to publish salaries in job adverts, with legislation to come “as soon as possible” (Nelsons). Until a bill passes, an advert can still say “competitive salary” and mean nothing by it.

So what has actually been decided, and what is still blank paper? Quite a lot of paper, as it turns out.

The salaries in job adverts law, as announced

The announcement, published by 10 Downing Street, says jobseekers “will no longer have to apply for jobs without knowing what they pay,” with young people looking for a first job and women returning to work named as those who lose most from hidden pay (Kandiq). The government is asking employers to start listing pay voluntarily now, ahead of the legal duty (The Beaver).

The plan follows the government’s consultation on equal pay and pay discrimination, which closed on 27 October 2026 and proposed pay information in every advert — or, where there is no advert, in writing to candidates before interview (Nelsons). The consultation response was lopsided: early analysis shows 94% of respondents backed the requirement, including 93% of businesses that took part (Nelsons).

Minister for Women and Equalities Bridget Phillipson said applying for a job “shouldn’t be a guessing game,” and the Fawcett Society welcomed the decision, while the TUC criticised the widespread use of vague descriptions such as “competitive salary” (The Beaver). One business group told the BBC that drafting job adverts is best left to good employer practice — a dissenting note the government has so far answered with the consultation numbers (Kandiq).

Salary transparency for employers starts from a low base

The case for legislating rests on how rarely pay is published today. CIPD research from 2024, cited by the government, found only 41% of employers always include a salary range in external job adverts, and just 18% always state a specific salary (Nelsons). Salary transparency for employers, in other words, is currently a habit of a minority.

The government presents the measure as a way to close the gender pay gap, arguing that hidden pay leaves candidates to negotiate blind (Kandiq). Mandatory salary information would help people make informed career choices and contribute to closing that gap, Phillipson said (Diversity Dashboard).

One legal right already exists underneath all this. Under section 77 of the Equality Act 2010, a contract clause stopping an employee from discussing pay is unenforceable when the discussion is about finding out whether pay is linked to discrimination (Kandiq). Staff can compare notes. They just cannot, today, see the number before they apply.

What publish salaries in job adverts will demand in practice

The homework lands before the law does. Employers who publish salaries in job adverts will be showing those figures to their own workforce too, and Nelsons’ employment lawyers spell out the consequence: advertise a team leader role at £34,000 to £37,000 while an existing team leader earns £31,000, and you will be asked why — with a legal duty to show any difference rests on a genuine, non-discriminatory material factor (Nelsons).

Recruitment teams will also have to settle pay much earlier. Rather than fixing a figure with the preferred candidate at the end, employers will need the number agreed before the vacancy goes live, and they will need to check that people already doing similar work are paid consistently with it (Diversity Dashboard). Wide ranges are a loophole waiting for rules: an advert offering £30,000 to £60,000 technically shows a salary while telling an applicant almost nothing, and the government has not yet said whether range width will be regulated (Diversity Dashboard).

Still undecided, in full: whether adverts must show a precise salary or a range, whether benefits beyond basic salary count, which employers are covered, how the rule reaches Northern Ireland — where most employment law is devolved — and how any of it will be enforced (Kandiq; Nelsons). The consultation proposed applying the duty to all employers whatever their size, with the detail set in regulations and an extended implementation period (Nelsons).

Analysis: this is a popular policy with an empty centre, for now. A 94% consultation majority and a prime ministerial announcement create momentum, but the fights that decide whether the law bites — range width, enforcement, small-employer scope — have all been postponed to regulations nobody has drafted yet. Employers who audit their pay bands now are not jumping the gun; they are doing the one piece of work that will be needed under any version of the final rules. Jobseekers, meanwhile, should keep asking for the number early. The guessing game is scheduled to end. It has not ended.

Photo: Alan Cleaver, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)

Sources

1. https://www.nelsonslaw.co.uk/salary-transparency/
2. https://www.kandiq.ai/en-uk/news/salary-in-job-adverts
3. https://www.beaveronline.co.uk/news/say-what-you-pay-law-salaries-compulsory-uk-job-adverts-burnham-2026/9502/
4. https://diversitydashboard.co.uk/news/employers-to-be-legally-required-to-publish-salari/1158/