The Aussie workers most likely to know each other’s pay

More job ads are including salary information to recruit new workers. (Source: Getty)

Pay transparency is on the rise, with more than a third of Aussie job advertisements now including salary information for new workers.

Employment website Indeed found the share of job ads featuring pay information had increased from 21 per cent to 35 per cent over the past four years, with the biggest spike occurring during the pandemic and its recovery.

Pay transparency was the highest in the beauty and wellness, construction and dental industries, Indeed found, while workers in the engineering and tech sectors were the most likely to be kept in the dark.

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Indeed APAC economist Callam Pickering said lack of pay transparency was a longstanding issue in Australia, with secrecy around pay and benefits historically common.

“Despite recent progress, roughly two-thirds of Australian job postings on Indeed carry no information around salary, often leaving job seekers poorly positioned to determine an appropriate pay rate or even whether to apply for a given job,” Pickering said.

But this is beginning to change within organisations, following the ban on pay-secrecy clauses in December last year. Workers are now able to discuss their pay freely and ask others about their pay.

“While this legislation won’t directly impact recruitment, it is contributing to a broad-based increase in pay transparency, which is rising in each state and territory and across every occupational category,” Pickering said.

Jobs with the highest pay transparency

While all occupations are increasingly including salary information, it is most common in lower-wage jobs and jobs where remote work is less viable.

The jobs with the highest pay transparency in job ads are:

1. Beauty and wellness - 59.4 per cent

2. Construction - 56.9 per cent

3. Dental - 54.8 per cent

4. Personal care and home health - 54.1 per cent

5. Sports - 53.7 per cent

6. Nursing - 52.9 per cent

7. Cleaning and sanitation - 51.7 per cent

8. Production and manufacturing 47.4 per cent

9. Loading and stocking - 46 per cent

10. Security and public safety - 45.4 per cent

The jobs with the lowest pay transparency are:

1. Insurance - 10.3 per cent

2. Industrial engineering - 12 per cent

3. Sales - 15.6 per cent

4. Electrical engineering - 15.8 per cent

5. Software development - 16.5 per cent

6. Mathematics - 16.6 per cent

7. Retail - 17.7 per cent

8. Banking and finance - 18.3 per cent

9. Information design - 19 per cent

10. IT operations and help desk - 19.6 per cent

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