A lack of pay transparency has long been a major issue in the US working world. But thankfully times are changing, with cities like New York bringing in new rules mandating salary disclosure in job ads. We look at the cities doing best – and the results may surprise you.
What is salary transparency?
You may have heard the term ‘salary transparency’, but what actually is it? Salary transparency is simply the disclosure of the pay for a job in the job ad. Seems simple, right? Unfortunately, in the US, it hasn’t been a regular feature in job ads and the nation has been known to fall behind countries, such as the UK, which have much higher levels of pay transparency. So, which cities are seeing the most improvement in the number of job ads disclosing a salary?
1. San Francisco
The city which has seen the highest increase in salary transparency from June 2021 to February 2022 is San Francisco. The city saw an increase of +7.8% in the 8 months leading up to February and follows the general trend of cities located on the west coast of the US having the highest increases in salary transparency. As well as this, most of the cities lie in California, and San Francisco is no exception, with almost 1 in 10 jobs in the city advertising a salary.
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2. Silicon Valley
San Jose is next on our list and has seen an increase in salary transparency of 6% from June 2021 to February 2022. This is most likely due to the fact that the global center of tech, Silicon Valley, is located in San Jose. Most jobs in Silicon Valley are pretty lucrative, meaning that most employers are willing to disclose salaries.
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3. Seattle
Seattle is the first city on the list not located in California, but the fact that it features is not surprising. Washington State has recently brought a bill into the state requiring employers to disclose the wage scale or salary range within a job posting. This means that employers in Seattle are following the regulations, which can only be a good thing for its workers. In the 8 months leading up to February 2022, Seattle saw an increase of 3.4% of jobs advertising salaries.
Take a look at available vacancies in Seattle here.
4. San Diego
San Diego features in the top 5, another Californian city! Wondering why so many cities from the west coast state feature in the top 5? Well, there is a reason for this. The state brought in regulations that require employers to disclose salary ranges, but only if asked by a prospective candidate. Last month, however, a Democratic state senator in California took this further by introducing a bill requiring employers to disclose salary ranges for open positions. These regulations are probably behind such large increases in cities located in the state, and we are likely to see this trend continue.
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5. Cincinnati
Cincinnati surprisingly sneaks into the top 5, after seeing an increase of 1.96% from June. Although the city has made some steps towards regulations requiring salary transparency, they are not as strict as those seen in Washington State and California. The regulations introduced in Cincinnati state that employers must disclose salary information after a conditional offer. Although these regulations don’t require employers to advertise salaries in the job ad, it seems that the attitude surrounding pay transparency in the city is changing.
Check out available roles in Cincinnati.
What about New York?
They recently mandated salary disclosure but the data shows that New York City is still falling behind. The city is currently seeing just 2.1% of jobs in NYC including an advertised salary, an increase of only 1.3% from 8 months ago.
New York City is bringing in similar regulations to California and Washington State. From May 15, 2022, the city will enforce a law where any employers with four or more employees will have to disclose the minimum and maximum salary range. This law is a great step forward in closing the pay gaps previously seen in the city. Despite this, we are yet to really see a large jump in jobs disclosing salary information. It does make you question whether this type of regulation will be effective within the city. However, the good news is that NYC still has a few months before this law is enforced, so hopefully we will see much larger increases in the coming months.
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The worst performers
Despite the proportion of salary transparency generally increasing in the US by 2.9%, not every state has seen an increase. Both Buffalo and Grand Rapids have seen decreases in the proportion of jobs advertising salaries. The regulations seen in New York City are yet to extend to the whole state, which is why Buffalo, NY is seeing a decrease of -0.29% in the proportion of jobs advertising salaries. Grand Rapids, MI saw a decrease of -0.32% in the number of jobs disclosing a salary. Again, the state of Michigan doesn’t have any regulations enforced currently so it isn’t overly surprising that these states have seen decreases in salary transparency.
Why is salary transparency so important?
But why is salary transparency so important? Does it really matter if employers don’t disclose salary information? There are tons of benefits to salary transparency, with an obvious one being that the potential employee knows how much they would get paid for the job without having to chase it.
Rather than going through several interviews before knowing the salary for the job, having the salary in the job description saves the employee and employer time and effort. It’s frustrating going through the application process before finding out that the job doesn’t pay enough, right?
A benefit you may not have thought of is that salary transparency significantly reduces issues of racial and gender wage gaps. Generally, minority groups, including racial and gender minorities, have been undervalued previously. By introducing an upfront salary expectation, individuals from all groups will know whether they’re being underpaid and therefore helps to eliminate systemic bias. Ultimately, this will go a long way in creating a happier and more diverse workforce.
Salary transparency laws
As previously mentioned, several states are introducing laws and regulations to strive for higher levels of salary transparency. This includes Washington State, California, and New York City. The details of each law varies depending on the location, but the majority of the regulations outline the requirement to disclose a salary or at least a salary range in the job ad. The US is not alone, the EU Commission is also exploring options to increase pay transparency, so it will be interesting to see which other nations adopt the same regulations.
Which sectors are winning?
We also took a look at the sectors which have the highest increases in jobs disclosing salaries. From June 2021 to February 2022, jobs in sales saw the largest increase (4.06%) in jobs disclosing salary information. This could be because sales tend to be pretty rewarding in terms of pay, meaning that hiring companies are happy to share this with the general public.
Other sectors which saw the largest increases in salary disclosure are jobs in legal (3.44%), IT (3.28%), PR (3.22%), and advertising & marketing (2.62%). Jobs in manufacturing and teaching both saw decreases in salary disclosure. It is unclear as to why these jobs have seen decreases, however, one explanation could be that these sectors aren’t always the most lucrative, meaning that employers aren’t ready to be open about the salaries.
Final takeaways
With various regulations coming in across the US requiring the disclosure of salaries within job ads, it’s clear to see why some states and cities are seeing increases in the proportion of jobs advertising the salary. Despite some anomalies, the general trend suggests that the US is beginning to see more and more job ads advertising salaries. However, the US still has a long way to go to meet the percentages of other nations, and hopefully, the regulations mentioned in this article will contribute to this. We hope to see other states bringing in similar regulations as California, New York City, and Washington State to strive for the elimination of systematic bias, and therefore a more equal nation.
Looking for a new job? Check out all available roles in the US here. Is the role you’re looking at not disclosing a salary? Use our ValueMyResume Tool to find out how much you should be paid.
Read more: Exposing the gender pay gap: These cities and states are the worst offenders