Is it wrong to ask the salary when it's not in the advert?

[ZolaBuddleia]

Have found a nice looking job that I'd like to apply for, but there is no indication of salary, not even a bracket.

Is it the wrong thing to do to email them and ask them what it pays?

Oh FGS. If it's "competitive" it probably isn't that means they have a salary or at least a range in mind. If they are not prepared to communicate that with potential candidates, even a ball park in a phone call/email as opposed to in public in an ad, then they have to expect their field of good candidates to reduce accordingly.

I just hate seeing

£competitive
£excellent

grrr!

Any employer which pays staff fairly should have no problem indicating a range for a position in an ad, because if everyone is paid fairly, everyone in similar positions will be within that range so no one will grumble.

This is so annoying and I would assume it's on the low side.

I think it should be law to advertise a salary with a job and also to have transparency within a company of salaries paid, why the secrecy, sounds like there is something to hide.

"why the secrecy, sounds like there is something to hide."

Exactly. Fair enough not being completely open about everyone's exact salary within the company, but if a company is so secretive/worried about repercussions within the business that they won't even give a range for a new role, it does lead one to wonder why, and to think there may be a problem.

The BBC don't put salaries on their ads either. They put a pay grade, and the way to find out what that grade means in terms of cold hard cash is to Google it, in which case it comes up as a Freedom of Information request.

Don't even get me started on jobs where they deign to advertise the salary but it's a preposterously wide bracket and they can't explain what you would need to do to end up at the top of it. Grr.

'Competitive' round here (East Devon) means 'Minimum Wage'.

I always assume non-advertised salary is on the low side, or that the employer wants to get away with paying as little as they possibly can!

I have no problems ring up and asking before applying. Many moons ago pre-dc when I was earning £22,000 ish I saw a job that I quite liked the look of and I assumed the salary would be about the same, if not a little more.

I rang the company to check before applying ... they actually had in mind £11,000 - £12,000. So, yes, it saved everyone wasting their time!

"The BBC don't put salaries on their ads either. They put a pay grade, and the way to find out what that grade means in terms of cold hard cash is to Google it, in which case it comes up as a Freedom of Information request."

Oh for crying out loud. We fund the BBC do we not?!

"I always assume non-advertised salary is on the low side, or that the employer wants to get away with paying as little as they possibly can!"

Absolutely. Asking what expectations are first is doing exactly that, seeing what they can get away with. I absolutely can't stand that, and as women are far far far more likely to expect or value themselves at a lower figure, this practice results in a gender pay gap.

Yy flowery.

I just got a job with undisclosed pay and I assumed the pay would be very low. It is the highest salary I have ever had and I am starting at the bottom of the pay grade so it isn't always undisclosed = badly paid.

That's very true noisytoys and your post demonstrates quite clearly why not giving an indication of salary is a poor recruitment strategy. People will assume it means the salary is low.

Best to negotiate salary after being offered job. You're in a much stronger position once you know they want you. So I suggest you don't ask at interview until offered. (Also in my experience as interviewer the interview candidates who asked loads of questions including ones about salary were almost always the ones we were unlikely to appoint.) If called for interview ask if your travel expenses will be paid. The worst that can happen is that the answer will be no. If offered the job have in mind the salary you would like/expect (taking into account the nature of the job, salaries elsewhere, and your skills/experience) and then add a decent amount to it eg between 15 and 25%. Again the worst that can happen is that they will say no and offer less but it tells them your expectations/view of your own worth.

Great tips, thanks. Absolutely, if I get as far as interview I wouldn't ask about salary until I got an offer.

For all this dicking about, I'd actually really rather like this job!