UK employers are the most likely among select European countries to include salary details when they advertise a job, with 71% doing so compared to just 16% in Germany, reports Reuters, citing research from Indeed. The proportion of UK job advertisements providing salary details has risen steadily from 48% in 2019 and has also increased elsewhere in Europe, though the gaps between countries have not changed much.

“The culture around pay secrecy and negotiation is a bigger factor in some countries than others,” Indeed economist Jack Kennedy said.

Next year, a law is due to come into force in the EU, which will require employers to provide salary details either in a job advertisement or before an initial interview, as part of efforts to reduce pay differentials that are correlated with gender or ethnicity.

The UK does not have a similar law on pay transparency. But courts last year ruled that clothing chain Next engaged in discrimination when it paid retail staff - who were mostly female - less than predominantly male warehouse workers for doing work that judges decided was of equal value. Next is appealing the ruling.

Some of the lack of pay details in European job adverts reflects how in some countries such as Germany, Italy and the Netherlands, certain sectors’ pay is determined by publicly available collective bargaining agreements. But even if collective bargaining agreements are taken into account, the proportion of roles where pay data is available only rises to 24% in Germany, for example.