Say What You Pay: The UK Moves Toward Mandatory Salary Transparency in Job Adverts

The government has stopped hinting and committed. It has announced plans to make it a legal requirement for employers to publish salary information in job adverts, which it is calling a "say what you pay" law. The announcement follows the Cabinet Office consultation on equal pay and pay discrimination, which ran from 14 July to 27 October 2026. Alongside proposals on pay transparency, the consultation covered effective equal pay rights for ethnic minority and disabled workers, a new equal pay enforcement unit, and measures to stop outsourcing from being used to avoid equal pay obligations. Legislation is promised "as soon as possible," but no implementation date has been announced. The prime minister has, however, urged employers to start now.

Key details remain open, including whether employers must state a specific salary or may give a range (and, if so, how wide it can be), whether only basic salary must be disclosed or other remuneration such as bonuses too, and what happens where there is no advert.