Don't want to put a salary on your job ad? Is it necessary to put a salary on your job ad? What if you don't want to put one? In this article we look at the pros of putting and, more importantly, the cons of not putting salaries on your job vacancy advertisements.

Why would you not put a salary?

There are many reasons why you mightn't want to put a salary on your job. You might being trying to keep salaries down; you might not want your competitors to know what you are paying; and, most commonly, you might not want your own staff to know what you are paying.

But while there are many reasons why you mightn't want to include a salary, there are few reasons you shouldn't include one. The view of most people involved in online recruitment and job board advertising is that one should always include a salary in your job ad. Anecdotal evidence suggests that not including a salary can have a very detrimental effect on the performance of your job ad. Let's look at why this might be the case:

No salary? No response.

When people search for jobs online they tend to use a number of search criteria such as job role, location and salary. Not all of us work for the love of it. Some of us, it is sad to say, only do it for the money. So, when we search for a job we want to know that we are going to get equal or better money. This is why salary is one of the most common search criteria that job seekers use when looking for a job. So, if there is no salary, your job will not appear in candidate search results. Your job will be seen by fewer people and fewer people seeing your job will mean fewer people applying for it.

Unspecified salary? Uncertainty.

Stating a salary also gives a candidate an idea of how junior or senior the job is. A "Sales Manager" can mean many things and can mean many different types of job. A sales manager who earns £18K with an OTE of £28K is a very different thing to a "Sales Manager" with a basic of £60K and 20% bonus. But they are both "Sales Manager" jobs but the candidate requirements are clearly different. Stating the salary will help the candidates see the level of job being hired for. 

Stated Salary? The best screening question. 

Following on from the point above, putting a salary on your job can be one of the best screening tools you as an employer can use. By stating what the salary is you will help candidates clarify what level the job is and you will stop lots of under-qualified and/or over-qualified people applying for your job.

No, I still don't want to put a salary!

As you can see, salary is a fundamental tool in helping job seekers find the right jobs. If, however, you still don't want to put a salary on your job ad then you must accept that you might not be getting the best response for your job ad. Many people who might be good for your job will not find your job. There's no way round that.

However, even if you don't want to put a specific salary, you can still put a pointer to the salary level. You can put a salary range e.g. "£45,000 to £50000 depending on experience," or "circa £45,000," or "up to £45,000." Some job sites even allow you to put a "hidden" salary, that is, your job does carry a salary for search purposes, but the salary does not appear in the job ad.

Put the pounds, shillings and pence

The upshot of this all this is that, if you can put a salary, put one on the job. It'll make all the difference to the success of your job.

Article updated: February 2008

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