Do you put the salary for the job in your job postings, either your online job postings or in other venues?
This debate about putting salary in job postings becomes more important as job applicants are willing to settle just to have a job. This could cause retention chaos as jobs become more available or motivation damage for people who are under-employed, under-utilized, and bored.
The Debate About Salary in Job Postings
Employers argue that not supplying the salary range gives them more flexibility in considering a wide range of candidates, especially in cases where they may have some flexibility. Some also believe that the first party to supply a number in a salary negotiation is in the weaker negotiating postion. Job applicants argue that they don't want to waste their time applying for jobs that pay outside of the salary range which they require.
Applicants say that an online job application for an employer's applicant tracking system can take an hour or more to fill out. So, it is unfair to withhold salary information that would have helped them decide whether to apply. It's one thing to enter a resume online, but entirely different to fill out an application, participate in interviews, and more, for a position that he or she cannot afford to accept.
Another piece, when you hire an employee, to the salary negotiation puzzle is that employers frequently ask candidates to provide either their current salary or their expected compensation with the application.
I have seen all sorts of advice about how to respond to this request. But, the reality is that, if the employer asks for this information with the application, the application is not valid, and the applicant need not be considered, without supplying it.
I can see all sides of this debate and have taken positions on both sides in the past. The online job application world has made me rethink much of what I believe, however, because of the time job applicants invest. I now lean toward believing that employers should supply salary information, albeit a broad range, in job postings. Your arguments have convinced me. Can you convince me otherwise?
Poll About Salary in Job Postings
So, what's your opinion? Do you include salary on your job postings, or not - and why? Is "competitive salary and above average benefits" enough to attract the most qualified applicants? Please vote in my poll so we can all see current thinking.
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There are a number of good reasons for not posting salaries or ranges in recruitment adverts.
• We pay a great deal for salary surveys. We are not going to give our information away to our competitors for free.
• We might be looking for a particular level of candidate but, having looked and not found we may change the scope and settle for something less. Now we have a candidate with high expectations. If they do accept they come in with a poor feeling about the company.
• Sometimes we upgrade the position that has just been vacated. The outgoing incumbent feels cheated because they didn’t receive that salary.
Finally, desperate applicants don’t bother to read or pay attention to adverse information. If the high salary confirms the high level of the position suggested by the rest of the advert, so what? We’ll try anyway. The only reduction to the number of applicants will be the few at the top end who are earning much more than your offer. Some of them, desperate enough, will try anyway—who knows, maybe I can persuade them to up their offer? So the reduction in numbers will be limited.
Therefore, leave it out. But, hey, if you’re advertising something I might be interested in, put it in. And if you are one of my competitors, I want to see it!
Heloo!
I see that you inmtresting wat salary you want to giving me of my mizarabile job of clenear streets.I nor request from this job a payment of high of 1200$ per months with all security social payed medical social security payment and ather taxes.And we want to do a exercise from haw much meen 1200 $ for all peoples who livoing in U.S.A. the first the rent were I stay in the city nor expensiv I think that I payment 300-400$ per month NO? or you can find much better to not payment more much of 300 $.After that I pay the light,Gase,Wather,the garbage all this must to cost another 200$ .We do mney from now 500-600 $.after that with all this payment I must to eat.I not eat so much but from 200$ per month I am shure that is mimnum posibilty to eat for to have the force necessary to working.We have from now 700-800 $.I ned to rent a car because I not to working in China and to use a bicycleto go work with this but is posibilty to find a method much economic to use a scutter a little motocicle.for this I must to pay of gas 100$ per month .We have 900-1000$ and with the rest of 200 $ wat we doing? this is the Qustion say OTHELLO To be or not to be.It’s enf for you or from enteprtenor to givbe me this salary.It is a life decent in the all picture of prashes I put the Question: this is enaf from decadence of human to be payed just 1200$.OK givng me 1000 $ and I livin Underground samwere in thios way mayby I can raise money for my the end of my way. Sincerly,marasoiu marian puiu
There is absolutely positively NO good reason to neglect posting the pay other than it pays commission. I suppose in an upper management career where there’s a lot of posturing things may be different. I however am not posting for a sales position or to be president or CEO of an oil company. Mostly, I’ve performed grunt work and truck driving. The most I could ever hope to make without a miraculous intervention of some sort would be $55K a year. I’ve tried to apply for jobs I didn’t even want and the first thing they want me to do is become a member of their website. (STUPID) After that some want you to take a test and then fill out a lengthy app and never once tell you what the pay is. After you become a member and taking a test and after you fill out an app then you’re stuck waiting for them to call. All these things are perfectly fine and I’ve done all of them but knowing the pay up front would save me that much time. The further away a job is the more it has to pay. I went all the way to Ann Arbor last week only to find out that after fuel and taxes I wouldn’t have enough to pay my bills. Time after time I’ve spent a half hour to an hour of my life to find I’m looking at a job that’s an hour away and pays $8 DOLLARS AN HOUR! If it were 30 minutes away (At this point) I might take it but when it’s an hour and twenty minutes away I couldn’t if I wanted to. If I look at a job posted and see up front “Hey, here’s a job playing video games and watching TV in right down the street, cool. HMM what does it pay? $27.00 dollars a week, gee that’s not enough.” I can live with that. Not “Oh, here’s a job cleaning spider rectums. Well, it’s an hour away, but that’s not bad. I’ll fill this out, that out, this out, that out, go here go there call this guy’s mom and how much does it pay? 8 dollars an hour! I wasted hours of my time looking at a job I can’t afford to work at. It’s stupid, irresponsible and inconsiderate. How about not giving out the location? Does THAT make sense? NOOOOOOOOO!!! How about the leaving out the job description or the qualifications? It’s only the single most important part of the job.
I think it is pretty ridiculous to hide the rate of pay for a position. I guess I would just assume that the employer is trying to hide their true intentions, eg.. they want to pay less than market value. Fine if all the people who apply are desperate and have no income, but if you already have a job, wouldn’t you want to know the job you’re applying to pays at least something similar to the job you already have?
I think all employers should show what salary they are going to pay, or at least a range. It will make others stop and think whether they should apply for the position or not.
I have been looking for work now in the IT field for over 3months and with 7yrs exp. no one wants to pay. They will ask you for the moon and stars but when it comes to salary they expect to get you for free.
It is good to see some companies put a range to at least know i’m worth something.
I’ve stopped applying for jobs that don’t post a salary range. It’s a waste of time. I darn well won’t provide a “desired salary” to a company that hasn’t told me what they intend to pay.
I have an MBA, years of high level experience in finance and personnel management, and a CMA; why would I waste my time applying for a job at a company that doesn’t value my credentials? Why would I tilt my hand by telling them what I want to get paid when I have no idea what they’re willing to pay (God forbid I say I’ll take $120k when the employer was willing to go $150).
Anyone who has taken introductory econ (or read a Texas Hold ‘Em book) knows about Game Theory — do not put yourself in a situation in which you’re forced to deal with asymmetric information. If I were an HR Director, and I were posting for a job, I’d post without a salary requirement first, just to weed out the idiots.
I wouldn’t mind not having a salary range posted, if the application process weren’t such a pain. I need to focus my application process on jobs that are within my range, and not waste time applying for jobs that I’m not going to end up taking.
I won’t apply for an appealing job that seems to match my skills if I don’t know what the salary range is. It’s a poor use of my time. If I were currently unemployed, it might be different.
I no longer apply for jobs without salary postings – too much wasted time, too many undervalued postings.
The whole point of working is for the salary (otherwise, who would go to work for free), yet that is most often the neglected piece of the puzzle.
There should be no ambiguity about this, or confusing and ‘underhanded’ tricks. It really shouldn’t be a question asked by the potential employee in a formal interview – “sooooo, how much is this job paying?”…
There should be a law against the practice of posting job ads which do not list salaries.
This is driving me nuts.
I do a job search and get 189 results. FOUR of them have a salary listed. I am currently unemployed and looking for a job, but I do not want to waste my time applying for hundreds of jobs that are below my salary needs.
It’s bad enough when the job listing is really vague about the actual job duties, but if it doesn’t list the pay either, how am I supposed to know if it’s a complete waste of my time and the employer’s time to apply?
If I apply for a job and they offer it to me, and it turns out to be about half of my previous salary… that’s less than what I’m making on unemployment! But if I refuse the job, I could lose my unemployment benefits.
Employers think that since they are getting hundreds of applicants for every job that they don’t need to list a salary, but they are alienating quality potential employees.
Hi Tina,
I have come around to your point of view for very similar reasons that you have listed. I now recommend that employers put salary ranges in job postings. The employer faces some problems by doing that, too, though, so I am also sympathetic to them. I mean, how would you feel, knowing the salary range, when an employer offered you an adequate, but hardly spectacular, starting salary in the bottom of the range? Excited to come on board? But, maybe that’s all the candidate’s current skill and experience level were worth comparatively.
Regards, Susan
Salaries should be posted to circumvent exploitation by some employers. What if the prospective employee quotes less than the basic salary of the job? The employer can simple accept. That will be exploitation.
I prefer to have salary matters discussed upon interviewing, as impression and convincing mannets of both parties play a major role.
If the employer has a fixed scale, it may help if salary range is announced
I think revealing salary in a job advert is not good. Often you will find very good employees working for low salaries due to nature of company’s business. While they may wish to take a new job, they are most likely to be intimidated by the relative salary difference between their current pay and posted salary on job advert, if very significant.
I would therefore prefer advert without salary figure, but with statement informing prospective candidates that generous or competitive salary and benefits will be provided.
Javan- Kenya
I simply cannot stand that employers don’t post the wage/salary range. For those that don’t, you know they are trying to play the game of offering you the least possible.
It is like going into a store where there are no price tags on anything. I’ve run across a few stores like this. I turn around and walk right now.
Unfortunately, just about every dang HR idiot in the world refuses to post a salary range (otherwise I wouldn’t ever apply for any job that didn’t post a range). As a result, I and millions of others like me either miss out on jobs that may have been a great fit, or else waste countless hours applying for jobs, sometimes doing one or two phone or in-person interviews, only to finally ask what the job might pay, and find out it is less than I make now! It is such a blatant disregard for EVERYONE’s time, as it wastes HR time too. It just doesn’t make sense. Would a car lot sell very many cars without any prices listed? Would a gas station sell much gas without posting its price?
For example, I just did a search for jobs and found 589 matches, and none of the first 30 or so I checked, that looked like a decent possibility, listed a salary range. Well, I don’t have time to apply for hundreds of jobs.
Seriously, HR folks, have some respect!