UK plans a law making employers publish salaries in job adverts

UK plans a law making employers publish salaries in job adverts

5 November 2026: The Government will "legally require employers to publish salaries in job adverts", Prime Minister Andy Burnham announced, and says it will bring forward legislation "as soon as possible". No start date, size threshold or penalty has been given, so employers have an instruction to prepare and very little detail to prepare against.

Not yet independently verified. The Government has published no draft law, so the start date, which employers it covers, whether a range will satisfy it and how it will be enforced are all unknown. The percentages are the Government's own estimates and early analysis. We will update this when it can be confirmed, and remove this note.

What has been said, and what has not

The announcement is framed around helping young people into work, and the Prime Minister is also calling on all businesses to say what they pay now, before any law takes effect.

The Government's supporting figures are these: it estimates that fewer than half of employers (41%) always publish salary ranges, and one in five (18%) always publish a specific salary. Early analysis of its consultation shows 94% of respondents backing the requirement, including 93% of businesses. Bridget Phillipson, the Minister for Women and Equalities, and Penny East, chief executive of the Fawcett Society, are both quoted in support.

The questions that matter most to an employer remain open:

• whether a range will be enough, or an exact figure will be required;
• how wide a range may be, and whether benefits and bonuses count;
• whether small employers, agencies and internal vacancies are covered;
• who enforces it, and what a breach costs;
• whether it applies across the whole of the UK.

The answer to the first of these decides how much work the law creates. The release uses the word "salaries" for the requirement while reporting separately on ranges and specific salaries, and that is not enough to tell which the legislation will demand.

Where this reaches recruitment software

Applicant tracking systems and job boards would be where most employers meet the rule. A salary field that is optional today, and often hidden from the candidate, would have to be completed and displayed, with some way of proving what was shown. Recruiters posting for clients would need the figure from the client before the advert goes live, which changes who approves what and when.

Multi-country employers have an additional reason to look now. An advert template shared across countries, or a vacancy posted by a central team, will need a rule for which roles show pay, and pay bands set for internal use may not be ready to be read by a current employee on a job board.

Employers can start without the detail. Publishing a salary on open roles is what the Government has asked for already, and doing so will show up any roles where existing staff are paid outside the band being advertised.

We list 19 applicant tracking products, 12 job board products and seven recruiting software products. A vendor's roadmap answer on a mandatory, displayed salary field is a fair question at renewal.

The wider timetable

This sits apart from the Employment Rights Act, and the announcement does not appear on the Government's current timetable for that Act. The same release says the final report of the Milburn Review on youth inactivity is due in the coming weeks.

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Sources

• GOV.UK: New "say what you pay" law to help young people into work, 5 November 2026, 5 November 2026