Kristen Gyles | Tell us the salary

Somewhere in the main corridor, or suspended from the ceiling in the front lobby, or printed on a big banner somewhere in the boardroom, one can almost always find a list of core values embraced by their place of employment. In many cases, ‘transparency’ won’t escape the list.

It is something that companies brag about on their websites, in their annual reports and in those flowery speeches the CEOs and presidents like to give. Transparency is one of those things every company prides itself on having – until it is time to recruit staff.

To start, the company advertises the vacancy and somehow forgets to include one of the most important details – the salary range for the job. The applicant spends his or her time applying for the job anyway because, well, it is now the job market’s best-kept secret that job seekers will put themselves through nearly any type of application process to get a job. At the interview stage, the applicant hopes they will get some information about the salary they are interviewing to be paid, but alas, the employer remains tight-lipped. Only after the candidate is selected for the top-secret-salary job do they finally get some feedback regarding what the company can offer only for the candidate to decline because they realise the job doesn’t pay close to what they hoped.

Why are companies so cagey about compensation? If transparency truly matters, why can’t companies exercise it in their dealings with potential employees?

DISCLOSE SALARY RANGE

A transparent company would simply disclose the salary range associated with each job, when advertising the job. Why have potential candidates wasting time applying for jobs that may very well pay a salary far less than they are willing to accept?

In the evolving world of recruitment, salary disclosure in job postings is becoming more and more commonplace. It is a practical strategy that can benefit both companies and job seekers. However, since some companies do not operate with even nearly the same level of ethics they claim, in order to make a convincing case in favour of salary transparency, I suspect I will have to demonstrate how said transparency benefits the company. That I will gladly do.

One of the most immediate benefits of posting salary information is its potential to attract more qualified candidates. According to a 2018 report by Glassdoor, a popular job site, nearly 70 per cent of job seekers say salary is a key factor when applying for jobs. By including a salary range, companies increase the likelihood of attracting candidates whose compensation expectations align with what the company can offer.

Companies that disclose salary information also save time by reducing the likelihood of having to renegotiate salary later in the hiring process and eliminate the chance of misalignment between the candidate’s salary expectations and the actual offer. As a result, recruiters can focus on finding the most ideal candidates, rather than engaging in protracted salary negotiations.

Hopefully, companies also have some interest in reducing pay gaps. Salary transparency is key to promoting fairness. Research has shown that salary secrecy often leads to pay disparities based on gender, race, or other biases. For example, there has been a recent resurrection of concerns about the existence of a gender pay gap in Jamaica with women being purported to earn 62 cents for every dollar earned by their male counterparts. When it comes to salary scales, information asymmetry works in subtle ways to widen the pay disparities between men and women, even when both perform similar roles and have comparable qualifications.

NON-EXISTENT

One of the primary drivers of these discrepancies is the fact that transparency with regard to salary scales is low to non-existent. Fortunately, jobs within the Jamaican public sector now conform largely to what is becoming the global standard of disclosing salaries in job postings. The private sector is still finding its way.

Salary transparency is gaining traction but is clearly not yet universal. As of 2023, California, Colorado, New York, and Washington have passed laws requiring companies to include salary information in job postings and other states now have laws requiring employers to provide, upon an individual’s request, information relating to salaries.

On the topic of transparency, another funny thing some Jamaican employers have started doing is advertising jobs anonymously. In other words, the job is advertised without the applicant even having a clue which company it is that they are being invited to apply to work with. Yes. Recall that job seekers are desperate. And, notwithstanding being oblivious to which company it is that one has applied to, the applicant is still likely to get asked something like “Why us?” in the job interview.

Besides all of this, the lack of transparency sometimes extends into descriptions of what the job truly entails. Unfortunately, it is not until the selected candidate turns up for work that they realise they will actually be doing the job of the three employees who resigned recently and not just the one job that was advertised.

Companies must do better. Applicants are held to a high standard of honesty, integrity and transparency during recruitment. Companies should hold themselves to the same or a higher standard.

Governments, too, can play a role in reducing pay inequity by enacting laws that require salary transparency in job postings and by mandating regular audits of pay practices. This can help empower women to negotiate fair wages and ensure that compensation is based on merit and not obscured by the lack of information.

Kristen Gyles is a free-thinking public affairs opinionator. Send feedback to kristengyles@gmail.com and columns@gleanerjm.com