At Adzuna, we’re on a mission to make the job market fairer and more transparent. Our data team looked at 80 million job ads advertised on our website in the past five years to provide a comprehensive overview of the evolution of salary transparency in the US and across the globe, and we’re delighted to announce the launch of our whitepaper Show me the money: Salary transparency in 2022.
US lags far behind other countries in pay disclosure
During our research, we’ve discovered that the US is the second worst-performing country out of 19 job markets analysed in 2022, with one in 35 job ads disclosing an intended salary or salary range in September. Since 2017, there has been a gradual decline, and the situation was exacerbated by the pandemic. The good news is, a positive change may be coming. We’ve identified that more companies are putting vital salary information in their job ads since 2022. This could be driven by a cascade of major legislative changes initiated by some of the major states — New York, Washington and California.
Best and worst states and sectors
State legal reforms are a powerful game changer according to our data. All the states that topped the ranking have drafted or passed relevant laws. Again, New York, Washington and California, who pushed for greater salary transparency this year, snatched the top three spots.
Top Five
1. Washington D.C.: 19.4%
2. New York: 6.4%
3. California 5.2%
4. Massachusetts: 4.2%
5. Kentucky: 4.1%
Bottom Five
1. Delaware: 1.1%
2. Wyoming: 1.3%
3. Oklahoma: 1.3%
4. Maine: 1.4%
5. Rhode Island: 1.5%
Sector-wise, Charity & Voluntary is the most transparent sector and also the only one having at least on in 10 job ads including salary information. Conversely, Graduate jobs (0.4%), Retail (0.6%), Travel (1.7%), and Hospitality & Catering (1.9%) are the most secretive.
| Sector | Proportion of vacancies advertising a salary, 2022 |
|---|---|
| Charity & Voluntary | 10.8% |
| Trade & Construction | 5.6% |
| PR | 5.5% |
| Domestic help & Cleaning | 5.4% |
| Sales | 5.3% |
| Creative & Design | 5.1% |
| Legal | 4.5% |
| Teaching | 4.3% |
| Admin | 4.3% |
| Accounting & Finance | 4.1% |
| Property | 4.0% |
| Social work | 3.9% |
| HR& Recruitment | 3.7% |
| General | 3.7% |
| Manufacturing | 3.5% |
| IT | 3.4% |
| Scientific & QA | 3.3% |
| Maintenance | 3.3% |
| Consultancy | 2.8% |
| Engineering | 2.8% |
| Energy | 2.5% |
| Healthcare & Nursing | 2.4% |
| Logistics & Warehouse | 2.3% |
| Customer Services | 2.2% |
| Hospitality & Catering | 1.9% |
| Travel | 1.7% |
| Retail | 0.6% |
| Graduate | 0.4% |
Adzuna launches global salary transparency whitepaper
The special edition of our whitepaper Show me the money: Salary transparency in 2022 not only shows our commitment to making the job market fairer but also our ambition to close the gender pay gap. It is part of our campaign to call for legal reform to reshape the job search landscape.
Sign the petition now and make putting salaries in job ads a legal requirement.
In this whitepaper, you can find stats and detailed analysis of:
- Global ranking
- Salary transparency in the US over time
- Salary transparency in the US by state
- Salary transparency in the US by MSA
- Salary transparency in the UK
- Benefits for employers who promoted salary transparency
- Jobseekers’ stance
Read more: What annoys jobseekers the most during job hunts?