Pay Transparency in Job Adverts: What Small Employers Should Do Before 27 October
Updated: 2 days ago
Guidance from an HR consultant in St Albans, supporting businesses across London, on what mandatory pay information in job adverts could mean for small employers and what to do while the consultation is still open.
Picture your next job advert. Instead of "competitive salary", the law would require you to state what the role actually pays.
That is the idea behind a government consultation launched in July 2026. It also floats a new pay watchdog with audit powers, and compulsory pay reviews for employers found to be paying people unfairly.
The consultation closes on 27 October 2026. Nothing is law yet, but the direction is clear, and as an HR consultant based in St Albans and working with employers across London, I would rather you prepare now than scramble later.
What the consultation proposes
There is a lot in the paper. These are the points that matter most to a small business.
Pay in every advert. A fixed figure, a range or a benchmark rate. If a role is not advertised, candidates would need the same information in writing before interview. The exact format is undecided, but the principle is that people should know what a job pays before they apply.
A new watchdog. It could examine your pay practices, ask for your pay data and order a review of how you pay people, without waiting for a complaint.
Automatic pay reviews. If unfair pay is found, a full review would follow as a matter of course. Today that rarely happens, even when a claim succeeds.
Wider equal pay rights. Equal pay claims mostly compare men and women doing similar work. The proposal is to extend them to race and disability, giving more employees grounds to challenge their pay.
Why it matters beyond your adverts
If this becomes law, the effects would reach well past the wording of a job listing.
Your team will compare. If a current employee sees their own role advertised at a higher salary than they earn, you will need a clear explanation ready.
You will need real market data. Guessing at salaries means overpaying, which costs money, or underpaying, which loses good candidates and invites claims.
Salary history would be off limits. The consultation also proposes banning questions about what a candidate currently earns. You could no longer anchor an offer to someone's present pay, so you would need to decide what the role is worth in its own right.
Two things to do now
There is no need to panic. A consultation is only the first stage and any new law would take time to arrive. These two steps are worthwhile whether or not the proposals go ahead.
Advertise by seniority. If a vacancy could suit a junior or an experienced hire, do not stretch one advert across a huge salary range. Publish two: a junior role with a lower band and a senior role with a higher one. Tighter ranges attract the right people and make candidates easier to compare.
Be able to explain every pay decision. If two colleagues do similar work for different pay, could you say why? Pay set by whoever negotiated hardest, or by gut feel at the time, is a problem waiting to surface. Review your team, look for inconsistencies and correct anything you cannot defend.
Seniority-based adverts are smarter recruitment and a stronger employer brand whatever happens next.
I covered the wider proposals in my small business guide to the salary transparency consultation. Another change worth planning for is covered in my article on the 2027 zero-hours contract reforms.
Questions to ask yourself
If you had to publish a salary range for each of your roles tomorrow, would you know what to put?
Do you know how your pay compares with the market for similar jobs?
Could you justify the pay gap between two colleagues in similar roles?
Do you currently ask candidates what they earn, and how would you set an offer without it?
If any of those give you pause, that is a sign to look at your pay structure now.
Support from a St Albans HR consultant covering London
I help small businesses get their pay in order before anyone forces them to. That means reviewing what you pay, benchmarking it against the market and making sure you could stand behind every pay decision if challenged.
Based in St Albans and supporting employers across London, I offer practical, commercially minded outsourced HR support. If you would like to understand how salary transparency could affect your business, get in touch for a conversation.
This article is general guidance based on the position at the time of writing and is not legal advice. The proposals are still in consultation and may change.
