As we write this, thousands of UK Gen Z workers are leaving job applications feeling discouraged by the lack of transparency around their current job’s pay and the uncertainty of their future new employer. There’s a good chance they’re looking for it. But all that may be about to change.
Almost half of UK employers plan to follow common practice across the Atlantic by introducing salary ranges in job postings.
About 48% of employers surveyed by Mercer International said they will submit payroll information over the next two years, compared to just 17% now.
Employers have traditionally been reluctant to make pay transparent, fearing it would cause anxiety among current employees, who might demand a raise or fall out with higher-paid colleagues. Ta.
some states in the usa Countries have enacted laws requiring employers to disclose salary ranges on job postings, but the UK and Europe have been slow to implement such regulations.
But in a tight labor market, employers appear to be motivated in part by a desire to attract top talent and retain current employees.
Last year, Adobe’s Research on the future workforce We found that 85% of Gen Z workers are “less likely” to apply for a job if the salary range is not listed on the application.
Gen Z is also much more likely to discuss their pay with co-workers, breaking the long-standing tradition of modest pay among older generations.
“For employers, this seems like a really positive thing,” said Lucy Brown, head of DEI and pay equity consulting at Mercer. said bloomberg. “Employees who say they are paid fairly are twice as likely to say they understand why they are paid the same.”
Most Mercer survey respondents said they were motivated by compliance issues with the EU’s Pay Transparency Directive, which aims to force tougher laws on employers. The EU will introduce this directive in June 2026, Gender wage gapthe company said it was motivated in part by opaque salary differences at the time of the application.
However, the UK has no guidelines on pay transparency.
More employers plan to introduce a global framework to harmonize pay transparency policies across offices, and compliance requirements in one region will help employers to drive retention. We suggest that it serves as a much-needed push to change practices.
Although supervisors’ perceptions of pay transparency lean toward employee perceptions of division, research shows that it actually increases employee perceptions, especially those who perceive themselves to be paid more than their co-workers. It has been suggested that this may motivate employees to work harder.
On the other hand, employees have traditionally been motivated to seek new opportunities thanks to the increased pay that comes with changing jobs. Although the rate of pay increases associated with job changes has declined in recent years, the current uncertainty surrounding pay still motivates employees to change jobs.
mercer study Last year’s study found that employees who stayed received an average raise of 5.6%, and those who left received an average raise of 16.4%.
Human resources experts believe that the desire to leave for a higher salary is a question of fairness. They hope greater pay transparency will recalibrate these perceptions.
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