Why you need to post salaries and benefits in every job post
It’s the right thing to do.
When scanning a job description, salaries and benefits are one of the top two most important pieces of information candidates look for. If it’s not there, you leave candidates guessing about whether it’s worth it for them to apply, and whether the job offers benefits that they might need.
So many reproductive health, rights, and justice organizations are foundation-funded. This means that for a particular position, there’s usually a line item with a specific number to cover salary and benefits, with maybe some wiggle room for negotiation. We all KNOW hiring managers have a salary number in mind based on the budget set for the position. Why play games with prospective candidates and ask them to list out their own salary requirements or make them go through an entire process with both of you assuming something different? Be direct about what your organization can offer.
No, writing the salary is “commensurate with experience” and that the benefits are “generous” or “competitive” on the job description is not enough, and it’s a lie. These are not numbers, it’s based on your available budget not candidate experience, and these phrases don’t convey whether someone can pay rent and care for their family if they accept an offer. If you want to do right by job candidates, list the actual salary and actual benefits. The days of the guessing game are over.
It’s the equitable thing to do.
We know that cis women are paid less than cis men for doing the same job, women of color are paid even less than white women, and disabled people and trans people earn even less than abled and cis people (for example: we know that a third of Black trans people earn less than $10,000 a year). Refusing to be transparent about salaries and benefits is a huge contributor to these inequities and puts candidates of color and trans candidates at a disadvantage in the negotiating process. Additionally, by basing a salary off of a person’s previous salaries and not disclosing what your actual budget is, candidates with marginalized identities are unable to earn a living, thriving wage, particularly if it’s always based on past underpaid wages. Do you really want your organization to be part of perpetuating this problem? By posting the salary, your organization can be part of the solution to ensure all candidates are paid wages that reflects the compensation they deserve.
Listing the salary also puts you and the candidate on more equitable negotiating grounds. If the candidate doesn’t know what the salary range is, the organization holds all the power. Candidates are left guessing about what salary to ask for, and sometimes they’ll ask for a lower salary because that’s what they’ve been lowballed previously or because they don’t know what they should asking for. It’s also becoming increasingly illegal for interviewers to ask a candidate for their salary history. So, don’t do that either!
It makes hiring easier.
Some research shows that you receive better quality and a higher volume of candidates when you list salaries and benefits for a position. Posting salaries and benefits also allows candidates to figure out if they can afford to take a job, and if it’s worth their time to apply and interview. As a hiring manager, this helps you in making sure your applicant pool is comprised of people who might actually accept the position, instead of wasting time on folks you can’t afford to hire.
Candidates will find it anyway.
Websites like Glassdoor, LinkedIn, and, to be frank, the comments of our Facebook page, are full of people sharing salaries and benefits from their past jobs. It’s challenging for job candidates to figure out which source to trust, since we all know salaries can change depending on funding and leadership direction, and benefits offerings can change with a new open enrollment season. Candidates make decisions about where to apply for a job based on the information that’s out there -- why not guarantee that they have the correct information and just list it in the job description? And, why not proudly show everyone what kind of a workplace you’re building and how you provide for your employees.
It’s a chance to show rather than tell about your values.
Use the salaries and benefits part of a job description to tell a story about what kind of workplace your organization is. Instead of just saying that you value employees, demonstrate that by being transparent about how you arrived at a salary. You can say, for example, that it’s based on local or national cost of living, compensation reports for comparable positions, and factoring in employee costs like student loan payments and childcare. Do you actually believe that employees should be able to take care of their health and families while they work for your organization? Describe the benefits—like six months of parental leave, opportunity to work from home, unlimited sick time, self-care budgets, and 100% employer-covered health insurance that covers abortions, fertility, and trans care—show that.
Remember
When you don’t list salary or benefits, you are signalling that your organization might be trying to underpay and undervalue employees. If you want to hire talented folks, purposefully obscuring what you can pay them and the benefits you can offer them is not going to get you there. List your salaries and benefits! And pay your interns!
Read More
For more reading on the topic and the sources we reviewed, check out these links: