When companies don't advertise the salary for a vacancy

[onthejobhunt101]

I'm currently job-hunting and applying for roles across a couple of sectors to keep my options open as far as possible. I've noticed that many companies are really coy about potential/starting salary to the point of refusing to talk about it. It's starting to drive me mad!

I've even spoken to the 'contact person' named in the advert itself to no avail - I've been told that salary is to be discussed at interview and not before, even though there are lengthy pre-interview tests and application forms. I've also been asked what I expect the salary to be - isn't it more about what the work and additional responsibilities etc are worth?

Surely it's in everyone's interests to advertise at least a salary range? Then the applicant knows if it's worth applying for and the company knows that they'll attract applicants whose qualifications and experience are befitting of that kind of salary. It seems potentially a waste of time and energy to fill out a five-page application form and go through all the screening tests to find out then that the salary was nowhere near what you expected.

Sorry for the rant, it's just been getting me down. Does anyone else have experience of this?

You are definitely right.

A few years ago DH was involved in interviewing for a job where they'd advertised the wrong salary (they advertised higher than they intended). They got some excellent applications, and the interviews went well. However all those offered said no when they were told the salary would actually be different. The company decided to readvertise with the correct salary (though at what cost, who knows). They got a different selection of candidates - competent, but not as good as the first time. The job was the same, other than the salary. So of course it makes a difference.

Where I work, our adminstrator is paid about £28k. I've seen admin jobs advertised at half that. Needless to say, our administrator is very good....

I hate this so much I think it should be a law that the salary and hours need to be advertised. I've had to turn down 3 jobs this year which we're asking for obscure hours/minimum wage but weren't advertised.

Were

I rule them out, assuming it's not listed because it's shittily low, or not listed because it's the sort of high I could only dream of.

I also rule out anyone who advertises a job at a figure and then in small print later on says well actually this is OTE, your guaranteed pay would be minimum wage or similar.

And anyone who lists statutory entitlements as benefits of working there gets the side eye too.

I ring up and say breezily, 'This looks great but the salary isn't mentioned.' If they are coy, I say, 'I understand you can't give me a precise figure but just so we don't waste each other's time, I need to check that it isn't ridiculously low like (name my current salary or a few grand above it.)' You can tell by their reaction whether it's in the right bracket for you. If it's lower they pause and mumble a bit and say, 'It might not be right for you.' If you are on target they say, 'Oh definitely apply.'

Back in the 80s i applied for a job in london advertised at a specific rate and the manager offered me the job but at a lower salary than was advertised! Luckily i was brave enough to say no thanks and walk away and get a job with a higher salary - what a CF!

YANBU

The worst is 'state your salary expectations' aka 'we want to know how little we can get away with paying you'! So disingenuous.

Well if its entry level/no qualifications then I'd assume its low. Its the norm in my industry though (accountancy), salaries aren't stated because they don't want competitors to know, but they all benchmark against each other - and also probably don't want employees to know about geographical differences etc. So you know that the pay will be similar at any firm of a similar size.

Interesting to see so many similar experiences!

@Tfoot75, this one states that they require a postgraduate degree, so not entry level (I don't think, anyway). I agree with PPs that it comes across as a bit disingenuous. It's also the sort of job where it could vary by about 20k or more - I've seen jobs with this title advertised for 19k, but also more than 40k. It's a difficult one to gauge with nothing to go on!

It's to prevent everyone who already works there from knowing how much the new starter is being paid.

I fully agree! In my industry also there can be very big salary variations despite the job title being the same. Having the salary advertised means I know whether it's worth my while applying. And it's not just about the money but also about the role itsel: a role paying 50k is likely to entail more responsibilities and be more challenging than the same role (in name) paying 30k.

Well I am currently recruiting and salary is dependent on experience - so if we end up hiring a new grad they will be paid less than someone with 5 years experience. We are flexible with whether we go with new grad and train them up or experienced person and pay the full salary straight off. But actually salary will be presented to each person at interview - and is based on grades of pay in the public sector for this type of work, with additional bonus payable on meeting our key operational work processes.

Mia1415 - I'm also in HR/employment law and my concern with this practice, from a professional point of view, is that you probably end up contributing to the gender pay gap. And could end up with an actual equal pay claim. Women are likely to ask for less than the male counterparts. 'They asked for that salary' isn't going to be a good defence to a claim.

I hate "dependent on experience" too, it shows me the employer doesn't know who they actually need.

A grad won't be able to do the same job as the person with several years of experience. You need either or, and if so, tell us what your brackets are.

To me an like that is an employer saying ‘we’ll pay you as little as we think we can get away with, and less if you’re a woman’. I won’t apply.

I didn’t bother applying for jobs that didn’t state at least a salary range. If I was very interested, I would email and ask but otherwise I assume “Competitive salary” translates as either “We want to pay you as little as possible” or “We don’t want the other staff demanding pay rises to match the new peoples’ salaries”.

Thankfully I work in an industry with published bands; give or take a bit we all know what other people around us earn.

I’m another who just doesn’t bother applying for these roles. As for the argument that it varies depending on whether they hire a graduate or someone with years of experience that puts me off even more - I don’t want a job that a graduate could do, I’m looking for a challenging and advanced role and expect to be paid for it. If you can’t even decide what grade a job is then we’re not going to work well together!

Don’t get me started on ‘competitive’. Who are you competing with, McDonald’s or Goldman Sachs?

I agree. In fact I run a fairly large (

I'm not for overregulation, but in an attempt to even up any pay gaps that might exist, I think we need more transparency.

That would include, including salaries when a job is advertised and publishing incomes of people within a company/department (these could be somewhat anonomysed)

Wow - well I hope none of you are currently looking for work. We can train any grad to do the job - it is a job a graduate is trained to do by University so we expect all grads can do the job. It will take a little more time to supervise but they can do the job. We are willing to offer the role to someone who would like it and has worked somewhere else since graduation. But they have to work our way so we are not giving them a bonus for experience gained somewhere else.

Perhaps you all work in fields where additional experience is required.

@pointythings

It's so that they can pay as little as they can get away with, simple as that. I won't apply for jobs that don't state salary either.

Absolutely. I wouldn’t either. No point in wasting time and effort to get through a recruitment process only to discover it’s not paying enough.

I’m idly job-hunting right now. Most in this sphere don’t advertise the salary - the few that do have ranged between 39 and 110 - the lower figure in London no less! 🤷‍♀️

I don’t want to jump through a million hoops to have to roll my eyes and say “are you fucking kidding me?”.

30, not 39.

Perhaps you don’t want the best person for the job, but someone who’s only going to stay for a year before moving on @annasgirl? That’s what you’ll get.