With fewer than 4 in 10 UK job ads showing salary info, the Co-op, AEG Europe, Good Energy and other businesses join forces in the We Show the Salary campaign – issuing a clear call to action for more employers to step up and put salary info on their job ads.

Tuesday 8 April, 2025

Under 40% of job ads in the UK show the salary and this figure falls further when looking just at job ads posted directly by employers – on LinkedIn, only 27% of these job ads show salary info.
With 56% of us saying that we’re unlikely to apply for a job where the salary isn’t in the ad, employers are creating a significant barrier for job applicants.
Showing salary info in job ads supports fair, inclusive and equitable recruitment practices – and is recognised as one of the key ways to close pay gaps.

London, 8 April 2025: Launching today, We Show the Salary is a business-led campaign to encourage more UK employers to include salary info on all of their job ads, to create a fairer, more inclusive and accessible recruitment process for job applicants, and to help level the playing field on pay gaps.

The We Show the Salary campaign is issuing a simple call to action to every employer in the UK: make a pledge to include salary info on all of your job ads. Any employer, recruitment agency or jobs board can take a pledge to show salary info on 100% of their job ads by visiting www.weshowthesalary.org.uk/pledge

The campaign is backed by 9 founding partners who together represent a wide range of business sectors: Co-op; AEG Europe; renewable energy supplier Good Energy; publishing companies IOP Publishing and Emerald Publishing; national law firm Stowe Family Law, THINK Consulting Solutions; and PR and creative comms agencies Ketchum UK and Full Fat.

Matt Eyre, Employer Branding & Colleague Value Proposition Lead at Co-op, says: “Salary transparency is a simple but powerful way to make recruitment fairer. At Co-op, we know that being clear about pay helps candidates make informed decisions, breaks down barriers, and leads to a more inclusive process. It also makes business sense – we see stronger, more diverse applications when we’re open about what we offer, and that benefits everyone.”

Research collated by We Show the Salary shows that fewer than 4 in 10 job ads in the UK include salary info:

39% of jobs published on applicant tracking software (ATS) platforms include salary info.
37% of jobs on LinkedIn include salary info – but there’s a dramatic drop to just 27% when you exclude jobs posted by recruitment agencies (which make up around a fifth of job ads on LinkedIn) and just look at those posted directly by employers.

But at the same time, it’s clear that people want and need salary info on job ads to make informed decisions about applying for jobs. New polling for the We Show the Salary campaign by Opinium shows that:

56% of us are unlikely to apply for a job where the salary isn’t in the ad.

When asked which detail is the most important to see on a job ad, 6 times as many people say salary info as say employee benefits – and 3.5 times as many people say salary info as say flexible/hybrid working policies.

“Right now we’re in a bonkers situation where it’s common to see job ads give long lists of benefits and perks, but with no mention of the more important detail of salary,” says We Show the Salary campaign director, Jo Tidball. “And job ads frequently describe the employer’s commitment to being an inclusive, diverse and equitable workplace, without saying what the job pays – but showing salary info in the job ad has been identified as one of the key ways to close pay gaps. We want employers to recognise that being an inclusive workplace and ensuring fair and equitable pay starts with putting the salary info in the job ad – and to show their commitment to doing this by taking the We Show the Salary pledge.”

Charlotte Williams, Talent Acquisition Manager at Good Energy, adds: “We at Good Energy are really excited to be part of the We Show the Salary campaign. As an employer whose values are based on being inclusive and fair, a big thing that you can do is be upfront with your candidates and show them the salary, making things as easy, fair and straightforward as possible.”

And Laura Lefeuvre, Head of Talent Acquisition at AEG Europe, says: “At AEG, we have a diverse recruitment charter and one of our key pledges is that we always show a salary on our adverts. This commitment is part of our broader strategy to create a level playing field on pay gaps and demonstrate an unwavering commitment to equal pay across genders and ethnicities. We want to be transparent and show respect to our job applicants. By showing the salary range, we know we'll attract a larger, more diverse talent pool, which will help us become an even more diverse and inclusive employer.”

Alongside the 9 founding partners, 50 further employers, recruitment consultancies and job boards have already signed up as early adopters of the pledge, sending a clear signal to their commitment to continuing this practice. Early adopters of the pledge include Haymarket Media Group; Usborne Publishing; learning and development platform HowNow; Sano Genetics; creative agencies Jack & Grace, Hope & Glory and GOOD Agency; TPP Recruitment; and charities Blue Cross, ActionAid UK, National Federation of Women's Institutes, Keep Britain Tidy, Young Lives vs Cancer and Independent Age.

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NOTES TO EDITORS

For more information or to arrange an interview with any of the founding partners, please contact campaign director Jo Tidball on team@weshowthesalary.org.uk

Data sources

Applicant Tracking System job data provided by Fantastic.jobs – based on 100,557 UK job postings in January and February 2025.
LinkedIn data based on an analysis of 1,000 LinkedIn job postings conducted by the We Show the Salary campaign team between 25 March to 4 April 2025.
Polling conducted by Opinium in April 2025, with a nationally representative sample of 2,000 UK adults aged 18+.

About the We Show the Salary Campaign

We Show the Salary campaigns for social change on salary transparency on job ads in the UK, to create a fairer, more inclusive and accessible recruitment process for job applicants and to help level the playing field on pay gaps. We’re a not-for-profit Community Interest Company, with a simple but ambitious aim of getting salary info onto 100% of job ads in the UK.

The campaign is backed by 9 founding partners: Co-op, AEG Europe, Good Energy, IOP Publishing, Emerald Publishing, Stowe Family Law, THINK Consulting Solutions, Ketchum UK and Full Fat.

Employers, recruitment consultancies and job boards can take the We Show the Salary pledge to show salary info on 100% of their job ads by visiting www.weshowthesalary.org.uk/pledge

Distributed by Pressat

With fewer than 4 in 10 UK job ads showing salary info, the Co-op, AEG Europe, Good Energy and other businesses join forces in the We Show the Salary campaign – issuing a clear call to action for more employers to step up and put salary info on their job ads.

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