Burnham to Make Employers State Pay in Job Adverts
Job adverts may soon have to carry an actual figure. Prime Minister Andy Burnham says the government will make it a legal requirement for employers to state what a job pays.
A pay figure in every advert
The rule would apply whenever a company lists a new job. Burnham said it would help deal with the frustration of applying for a job without knowing the pay. Officials add that open pay lets people already in work check whether they are paid fairly compared with others.
Burnham said that anyone applying, from a young person starting out to a parent supporting a family, should know what a job pays before spending time and effort on an application.
Who backs it and why
Workers' rights campaigners say the measure will help young people and women in particular reach more equal pay. Experts say leaving pay out of adverts makes it hard for young people to judge which roles to apply for. They add that it gives employers room to offer some applicants, women included, a lower salary.
Paul Nowak, general secretary of the Trades Union Congress, said: "Anyone who's searched for a job knows how frustrating it is to read 'competitive salary'."
Recent research by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development found that under half of employers always state a salary range, and under a fifth always state an exact figure.
Details ministers have not settled
Ministers have not yet decided what exactly an advert must contain, which companies by size will be covered, or how the rule will be policed.
The government says 93% of businesses responded positively to a consultation. The July consultation covered changes to how existing equal pay laws work. It also proposed stronger equality protections for disabled people and ethnic minorities, and ministers have not yet published final plans on those points.
Part of a run of small fixes
Since taking office, Burnham has mostly announced modest changes to everyday life, while promising bigger change later. They include removing VAT from electricity bills, cutting bus fares and a £100 council tax rebate that came with the budget.
He is also working on a 10-year plan for ending what he calls 40 years of neoliberalism. The plan is meant to include bolder steps, bringing utilities under public control among them. Burnham said this week that publication could move to next year, after an initial expectation of next month.
The government has also promised more policy changes to help young people into work in the coming weeks, in response to a review by the former minister Alan Milburn.
Source: the Guardian