‘Competitive Salary’ in a job advert

[ChocolateCakeOverspill]

I’ve seen a job which sounds like something I’d like to do. It’s a longer commute than I’m used to but a promotion from my current post.

What does it mean when an advert says ‘competitive salary’? Is the applicant expected to negotiate? How do you know if the salary is going to be too low and therefore not worth an application?

Usually in my line of work salaries are advertised on a clear scale but this is a senior role which I guess is why the ambiguity.

It's bollocks in terms of my large corporate workplace. They say this and then lowball everyone.

It means they probably want to give you the bare minimum they can get away with rather than what the job is worth.

Either it's not competitive and they're embarrassed to state it or there's a wide range depending on experience.

Is it advertised by a recruiter? They will often be more candid on the phone.

Many jobs these days say this. Basically it means comparable to other similar positions, but naturally they will start Low, so you have to be assertive and ask high. Hopefully you can meet in the middle :)

You don't, and that's the problem, because competitive with what? the last job I applied to said that and it turned out to be £ 21,000 or £ 10.10 an hour i.e minimum wage. I would never apply for a job that won't be upfront about the salary.

Locally it would mean minimum wage, at best 6pence and hour over minimum wage.
These employers tend to wonder why they cannot hire staff or retain them.

IME it means "the salary is shit and we're hoping to hook you before we have to mention it so we can lowball you".

It means “we will pay you the absolute minimum we can get away with”.

This is common in my experience, so I just aim high in the first conversation and see where it takes me. I once applied for a role and they emailed me to say my expected salary was above their budget, but they refused to tell me their range and wanted me to send a new figure over to them. I've no interest in playing Guess the Salary so I promptly withdrew my application instead.

I don't understand why employers play these games, it's usually a waste of everyone's time.

Exactly. This was a local job (as in, five minutes walk) so I was prepared to drop my expectations a bit, but not THAT much.

Ring up and ask "How much is the salary? I need to know that before deciding whether to apply." If they can't give you a figure then don't bother. If they give a range, only apply if the bottom of the range is acceptable.

In my company for professional jobs it’s because there is a big range of salary for each senior grade, depending on experience. For one grade there could be someone with just enough experience to get to that grade on one salary, and someone with loads of good experience at £20-£30k higher. You can negotiate.

I skip over these jobs. If they cba to give a salary range, I don't consider them. It feels like mind games and you are chasing them from the start.

It's an awkward one as could mean anything. As an account manager, I've had some real ranges for a similarly titled role. It was something I avoided as felt a waste of time but my most recent role change sounded a perfect job so I applied. It was actually a very competitive salary.

When I have applied and then been told a low wage, I make it clear that's not competitive.

I'd say I t usually literally means low end of market average based on experience and would be a range. I don't think it's a cop out as such but it is shit.

It's fair that current employees aren't able to easily look it up and see what that position will earn and people can't see it for competition purposes.

Thank you all for your responses, I think you’ve confirmed my initial response. It’s not advertised through a recruiter but through the organisation and the contact is the (equivalent of) the vice chair person.

I lead a recruitment team for a large ftse 50 company.

we publish a pay band for most of our roles, however we often advertise a role as ‘competitive’ to enable us to hire a ‘big hitter’ who might demand a higher salary than our current team.

so for example one manager might be on £80k and not performing great (but not badly enough to manage out). We need an experienced manager to come in and help with a big transformation piece and so might be looking at people whose experience might demand £100k which might be the very top end of the pay bracket. If we advertised that, the other manager would feel underpaid (which they aren’t, they’re just at the other end of the pay bracket so experience or performance reasons)

It really depends on my industry and job. In my line of work people have the same job title at vastly difference experience levels, so you'd get job ads saying "Salary between £30,000 and £75,000" and that is not a wise move.

Well I’ve name changed for this and will change again, so it’s a university director role. Usually there is a clear pay band but maybe at director level they look more flexibly?

I’d have to get a sense of where it fits within the organisations structure in order to make sense of comparative roles in other organisations.

My firm states this in vacancies and they do actually pay better than most other firms in the area.

I have been in my profession for over thirty years, private sector and I would say the majority of job adverts I have ever seen, say “competitive salary” rather than provide a figure. It definitely does not mean it is a rubbish salary, my profession and sector is a well paid one. They just don’t want to publish it and often that is because they don’t want existing staff to see it. I have always had a good idea of what the ball park is well before interview.

Doesn’t mean rubbish salary in my industry either. It tends to mean they have a range that is flexible for the right candidate but they aren’t going to commit to paying the top end for just any candidate.