Should job apps list salary?

joeyowen

Just a thought, and worth mentioning i'm not actively looking

But nowadays, whenever I see a job ad, it's either salary dependant on exp or competitive salary. It rarely gives a figure or a range

I never bothered applying for those jobs, and the last time I did their idea of 'competitive' was 8k less than my current earnings so it was a waste of their/my time.

Anyone here think it is a good idea to not show it?

webrthomson

100% agree, lets be honest its a pretty big criteria when thinking about moving

Chalky

Depends how keen you are. Many people look at previous salaries on CVs and think "money obsessed". Its not right that they do that but when whittling down CVs they will look for any reason to reject.

dern

The difficulty if they show their hand is that they have missed the opportunity to get you cheaper and there's also the significant risk that one of their current employees sees the salary being asked for the position.

57Deluxe

/\ does Jeremy Corbyn know of this?

Sporky

dern said:

The difficulty if they show their hand is that they have missed the opportunity to get you cheaper and there's also the significant risk that one of their current employees sees the salary being asked for the position.

Only a problem if they're not paying enough. In which case it's not worth working for them.

Myranda

Unless it's the job that was all over the news a while back - care taker of some Austrian island paradise - you go to work in no small part to earn money...

How much money may very well make the difference between an OK job and a job you don't want to do.

In part a job advert should be selling you the idea of working for them... so why leave out one of the (main) benefits?

It's considered gauch to ask about the pay at an interview... so unless it's on the job advert, when will you find out? In your first months pay packet?

Chalky

I'd suggest that before the interview, ring the agent or company and ask about the salary. If they can't/won't tell you then tell them your minimum salary you would accept, and follow with the words "Look, I don't want to waste you or your client's time if salary is going to be the stumbling block". 

thomasross20

Yes. It's ridiculous it's thought of as a negative thing to talk about it. I wouldn't do it for free - that's what I do with guitar!

EricTheWeary

Having worked in the public/ former public sector for ever and a day I was surprised at how few jobs now have the salary in the ads ( for public sector ones it's still standard practice to show the range). Maybe it makes sense for the types of jobs where you might negotiate your salary but I doubt there's much negotiation going on to be a part time van driver for Tesco. 

EricTheWeary

Having worked in the public/ former public sector for ever and a day I was surprised at how few jobs now have the salary in the ads ( for public sector ones it's still standard practice to show the range). Maybe it makes sense for the types of jobs where you might negotiate your salary but I doubt there's much negotiation going on to be a part time van driver for Tesco. 

roundthebend

Yep, I tend to avoid most of those job adverts. Any that sound really interesting I will pursue, but salary is one of the first things I discuss before getting too caught up in whether the job is exciting or not.

Sporky

If they have to ask, they can't afford me.

musteatbrain

It depends. If you have a transparent grading structure within a business it's easy to be able to advertise salary. Lot's of private sector businesses have no grading structure and can't be transparent without royally peeving their current employees. I've worked in a lot of places where they have wanted to be transparent but it would reveal the scale of the salary issues they had and they weren't making enough to redress the imbalances across the teams they had in place.

mellowsun

It may still be worth sending in a CV and covering letter saying what your salary expectations are.

A few years back I applied for a job with no salary mentioned, so I gave range of what I expected based on what would incentivise me to leave the current role. It turned out theirs was much higher and I got offered a lot more than I expected.

I guess that's quite unusual though.

TimmyO

Sporky said:

dern said:

The difficulty if they show their hand is that they have missed the opportunity to get you cheaper and there's also the significant risk that one of their current employees sees the salary being asked for the position.

Only a problem if they're not paying enough.

I don't agree. 

I think too many companies try and perfectly define the drone they think will fit best - so a company who defines the type of skills that will be helpful, the types of outcomes sought, and describes the type of company they are to work for stand a far better chance of getting a range of candidates who might each be a great fit in different ways.

Part of that is relevant to salary too. Saying (say) £55-65k means the person who is looking for 80k who might once you speak to them seem totally worth that to you isn't going to apply. 

If applying for a job where no range is given, and you think it might be an issue, then I'd (and have) say what my range was the applying - by the same token, as long as a candidate is not looking for too much then they should also have no issue saying that right? ;-) 

One job I went in to fit this exactly - I said when applying what I was looking for and asked if it would be an issue. They said they were flexible on salary for the right candidate.

I got the job and it turns out they increased the scope of the role when they met me, gave me a job and salary that fit, and we went on from there. 

fields5069

I think when you're considering a move away from a good job, you like to know that extra responsibility and perhaps a longer commute would command a higher salary range, so personally I do find it frustrating when ads don't give at least some indication.

WezV

We have a hidden pay scale  and transparent role grades.  Each step on the pay scale crosses multiple grades.  I suspect it's purposely confusing.  Other than this it's a great place to work, the pay is decent, and the responses here explain why I never get many applicants.

the big issue is I disagree with my job grade, other people with my level of responsibility are a grade higher.  So it's not much comfort when they tell me I am at the high end of my pay scale for my job grade.

Sporky

TimmyO said:

I don't agree. 


[snip]

Hmm. Excellent points - perhaps I'm too used to places that have fixed ideas.

ThePrettyDamned

I am all up for transparency - and if a company does pay someone with the same role as you more or less, they should have a justifiable reason. 

I've never gotten why people don't like discussing pay within the workplace. It's really important and would help businesses be more accountable. 

fields5069

I probably shouldn't day too much on t'internet, but we had transparency during a merger, at least in median pay for each grade between our 2 main sites. It made for a negative atmosphere for quite a while, although the merged company did take steps to get everybody up to an acceptable pay level. It must seem quite unfair to the ones on a high wage as well though, since their pay rises have been miniscule since the merger.