Swindon & Wiltshire News
Bath businessman launches petition for UK Salary Transparency law
Bath businessman James Gwinnett has launched a petition that seeks to give job hunters more clarity when applying for new jobs.
James, the former client services director at Bath-based Clearly PR, launched the petition after a post-redundancy job search led to rejection emails often based purely on not knowing how much companies are willing to pay for positions.
He hopes his petition might force a change in the law, requiring companies to include a proposed salary in recruitment ads as they do in the EU.
According to recent figures more than 1.5 million people are trying to find work, and face what has been described as a “nightmarish” job market, with job seekers experiencing “extreme” conditions and “slim pickings for good roles”.
Only around four in ten adverts feature the salary range of the role, with many asking candidates to submit a desired salary as part of their application.
This leaves applicants in the dark as to their suitability, and having to guess companies’ budgets.
If they submit a figure that is either too high or low, AI recruitment systems filter them out, deeming them too over-qualified or inexperienced.
What’s more, says James, elevated language in adverts is designed to attract experienced candidates, even if the role is an entry-level position.
Words like ‘manage’ and ‘lead’ are misleading and variance in titles makes the level of roles unclear.
Vice president, lead, manager, head of, and director are all titles used to describe positions of supposed seniority, but some with far lower salaries than a figure someone of experience should be commanding, he says.
“After four months of searching for the ‘right’ role and receiving countless rejections, mostly with a human never having seen my application, the straw that broke the camel’s back was receiving an email that explained I was not being taken forward ‘due to a misalignment in compensation expectations,’ said James.
It was for a ‘manager’ role, positioned as being appropriate for someone of my level of experience, but, on following up with the company, it transpired the budget was half the salary I was looking for.
The application was a complete waste of time and I’m hearing from many others that they’re having similar experiences.
“This has to stop; it’s counterproductive for job seekers, not to mention demoralising.”
The #salarytransparency petition seeks to bring the UK in line with EU countries, whose companies are being mandated by the EU Pay Transparency Directive – with rollout across all member states by June 2026 – to offer transparency in recruitment, namely providing information on salary ranges as part of the recruitment process.
Companies will not be able to ask applicants about their current or previous pay to determine offers when hiring.
“It’s no surprise that the UK is behind our European neighbours, whose Pay Transparency Directive is a hugely positive move towards giving the power back to employees and job seekers,” said James.
“We should similarly be compelling companies to provide individuals with much-needed pay transparency, to both make the recruitment process fairer and remove the gender pay gap. I would therefore urge people to get behind this initiative so we can take this to Parliament.”
A 15-year veteran of communications, James is launching his own consulting business and focusing on his motivational speaking.
Find the petition at https://www.change.org/salarytransparency
