Why do so many job adverts not quote a salary?

[Passportto]

Maybe for the perfect job, some people aren't that bothered what the salary is and sometimes if you know the industry you know what the going rate will be for the kind of job, but on the whole job descriptions are fairly vague and the possible salary range is pretty wide. Unless they quote it how are people supposed to know if the job is attractive to them.

e.g "Office Manager" can IME pay anything from around £18k to c. £50K

It must make a difference to the number of applications you get and the suitability of the applicants if you don't quote a salary? So why do do many businesses do it? Also, doesn't it mean you get applications from people who wouldn't accept it if they knew what the salary was, if you;re offering the bottom end?

If I was desperate for work, or the job sounded completely perfect I might apply when the salary isn't clear, but on the whole I ignore adverts where they don't say what the pay is. I can't be the only one?

No I ignore them too as my role pays anywhere from 25k to 60k
I'm not interested in the 25k, and the 60k is a bit beyond me

With you OP, v annoying.

Also a bugbear for us - jobs that are advertised as PT without actually saying what days and what hours they want the person to work. Tricky when trying to work around school etc.

They know that alot of people are desperate so will apply regardless. It's an employers market in lots of sectors atm. One reason for zero hours having a stranglehold. The demise of the unions have also favoured companies.
Employers can fish with mouldy maggots instead of tasty live bait. Because they can.

Agree about the pt. They should specify days and start- finish times. It helps people to cost for childcare before applying.

On the whole though, don't the employers want good quality candidates, not desperate people?

To PP who said about part time hours; I’d assume flexibility within the business hours if no hours are specified. It wouldn’t put me off applying and it’s definitely the sort of question to ask at interview stage ime

But I agree about no salary,very annoying!

It's annoying for us as potential candidates but I also can't see that it's very helpful for the businesses.

It must mean they miss out on good candidates who don't know if the job's suitable for them and it must mean they get applications from people who won't accept if the salary's not right.

I hate it when they say salary will be discussed at interview, it always makes me wonder if the new people are going to be offered more than the existing people who are doing the same job and never get a pay rise.

From a hiring perspective, I find it hard to put the salary range in an ad for a few reasons. One, I will often decide the "grade" I offer when I've seen the candidate pool, and that directly defines the salary range (and the range can be quite different). I've also previously had trouble with candidates always expecting the high end of a range, when their experience puts them at the lower end, but they consider the calculation discriminatory.
Usually though, if you're dealing with a large organisation, you can find out the salary range on the first screening phone call - pay scales are not something companies want publicly available, but they will communicate them on a one-to-one basis, as its in everyone's interests to make sure the candidate is roughly in the right range.

I applied for a job recently, £32k for 3 days p/w. No mention of pro rata so pretty good salary.

Also no closing date, so when I rang a few days later to see when that was, I checked re the pay - which WAS pro rata and was therefore offering much lower pay

If the outline job spec in the advert looks largely appeal surely there's nothing to stop you contacting the company and saying you'd like them to give you a ballpark salary range so you know whether the role is aligned to your attained experience and qualifications.

Sorry appealing that should say

This isn't a problem in the public sector of course. They are always very clear about grades and salary range in their role specs

I've wasted my time on more than one occasion with this.

I laughed my way out of an interview once for a business analyst role but they revealed they wanted to pay 18k.

No thanks, I was on 30 and annoyed that I'd taken a days holiday for them to mess me around like that.

Quite often they're ads run by agencies daisychain and the agency either can't or won't give any salary information

Passportto Admittedly my main experience is Civil Service but that's a significant chunk of Public sector workforce. They have an external facing website and all jobs show grades and salary scales.

Why not stick to Indeed.com jobs portal. All their ads via agencies or direct seem to publish salaries based on the feeds I get.

Troll BA role for 18K? They must be on another planet! Even an entry level BA commands mid 20K

I'm not really looking for a new job, but keep my eye out for interesting opportunities so both the role and the salary would have to be very attractive for me to apply.

I can't be the only person in that situation and as a recruiter I'd rather have someone who really wants my job than someone desperate to leave their current role. It just seems to me that the employers who don't advertise the salary must be missing some of the best candidates.

It's very annoying - but clearly designed to give the employer maximum flexibility. They want to find the best person for the role and if this means paying a bit more, then they might do. Equally, if they can get away with paying as little as possible, they probably will.

Elel: jobs should not be graded according to the candidates who roll up. The job should be compared to others within the organisation and a suitable salary range agreed. If you subsequently offer another job, because you deem the candidates unsuitable for the job advertised, your HR people should re-evaluate and the candidates should be told exactly what has happened. If you said a disabled person was not going to get the rate for the job because you decided to downgrade it, you would be discriminating. If they could do the job with reasonable help, there would be a problem if you said they must take less money.

It is always wrong to grade candidates. It is good practice to grade the job in a professional manner and appoint if you can. If you cannot get the calibre of staff, reevaluate the job, but don’t do it on the hoof.

I agree it's very annoying.

A few years ago I saw a job advertised that looked interesting but no salary was specified. I phoned up to ask for a rough idea of salary but the company refused to talk. I applied anyway. The application form asked what my current salary was, so I put down my current salary and added a note along the lines of being open to negotiation regarding salary.

I never heard back and assumed I'd been unsuccessful so phoned the company to ask why, and they said I was a great candidate but far too expensive (based on my then current salary).

The thing is, I was actually prepared to take a pay cut for a job that offered more flexibility (which the job in question did). My existing job paid well but offered no flexibility and involved very long hours. So that company's short-sighted approach backfired.

For my current job, as well as three interviews, I had to complete a task (research and writing) that took a couple of entire days. I simply wouldn't have done it had I not been given an indication of salary first.

I've also been in a situation where a recruitment consultant told me the salary was between £X and £Y. I went through the interview process (including taking time off work to attend interviews etc). I was offered the job on a much lower salary, despite being at the top end of the range of experience they were looking for. When I complained the company blamed the recruitment consultant, the consultant blamed the company.....annoying as had I known the true salary I wouln't have wasted my time, or theirs!