Until those questions are answered, the practical reach of the announcement is unknown.
Andy Burnham has announced that employers will be legally required to publish salaries on job adverts, according to The Guardian. The prime minister framed the measure as a way of empowering both employees and jobseekers, arguing that nobody should spend time and effort applying for a job without knowing what it pays.
Workers' rights campaigners quoted in the report say the change would help young people and women in particular achieve more equal pay. Officials argue that publicising pay also helps those already in work judge whether they are being paid fairly compared with others. Paul Nowak, general secretary of the Trades Union Congress, welcomed the move with a line about the frustration of reading "competitive salary" in a job listing.
The case for transparency rests on a familiar asymmetry. Experts cited by The Guardian say that omitting pay details makes it harder for young people to judge which jobs are worth applying for, and easier for employers to make lower offers to some candidates, including women. Research by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development found that fewer than half of employers always published salary ranges on adverts, and fewer than a fifth always published specific salaries.
The announcement fits a pattern Burnham has set in his first months in power. The report describes a series of "small fixes" — removing VAT from electricity bills, cutting bus fares and a £100 council tax rebate announced at the budget — presented alongside a promise of more radical change. That larger project, a 10-year plan to end what he calls "40 years of neoliberalism", was expected next month but may now slip into next year, the prime minister said this week.
Much about the policy is unresolved. Ministers consulted in July on how existing equal pay laws work, and that document also floated greater protections for disabled people and ethnic minorities, on which final plans have not been set out. Further measures to help young people into work are promised in response to a review by the former minister Alan Milburn. The government says 93% of businesses responded positively to the consultation, but it has not decided exactly what information must be published, which sizes of company must comply, or how the requirement will be enforced. Until those questions are answered, the practical reach of the announcement is unknown.
