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Why public salaries?
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/why/

Why to disclose salary in a job ad?

Salary is a top priority for job seekers

According to the StackOverflow Yearly Survey,  salary has been #1 (2016) and #2 (2017) job priority for those who participated in the survey. StackOverflow is the largest and most trusted community of software developers and in 2017 they received answers from 64 000 participants.

Companies with open salaries receive more and better quality applications

Many successful companies, including Buffer, Whole Foods Market, Sum All and plenty of others have switched to open salary policy. Joel Gascoigne, CEO and co-founder of Buffer said that "the company has never been able to find great people this quickly in the past." (link)

Many Finnish companies have already made a step towards making salaries public. Here's a list of companies that have advertised a job including the expected salary range:

  • Qvik
  • Smartly.io
  • ZEF
  • Paf
  • eTasku Solutions
  • PAF - Play Among Friends
  • Klinik
  • Back Office Services Oy BOS
  • Inside Secure
  • Tact Finance

People are more likely to apply for a job which discloses salary range upfront

We asked a community of people who work with software the following question:  Are you more likely to apply for a job that discloses salary upfront?

Overwhelming majority replied positively, here are some of the answers:

Certainly. Especially right now, you need to attract candidates who are "passively looking": people who have a job, but would move given a good offer. I do freelance development and consulting, and I'm basically happy with that. I wouldn't turn down a great opportunity, but I'm not going to start the application process unless I know you can beat what I'm already earning.
More than once I've gotten to the negotiation phase of the job offer only to find the employer won't meet my salary requirement. It's very frustrating and a huge waste of time for everyone.
Of course, one of my terrible experiences was interviewing after a company pinged and showed strong interest. Only to be offered half of what I was making and been begged to take it because they are about to go big and shares. I wish to know the salary upfront. I'll never take another interview without discussing the salary range beforehand.
For the most part, yes. Given that job titles aren't able to help me discover whether an opportunity is right for my next career move, salary ranges help me to gauge whether I'd be moving up a ladder and save me time from having to schedule something only to find out that they were really looking for juniors.
Having a clear salary expectation up front just saves both parties time and effort. One of the big reasons salary ranges aren't always public, is because it benefits the company, by maintaining information asymmetry. By but doing that, you're at least in a small way, telling me that you don't want to play that game and are more likely to be transparent with me about other parts of the process.
I have also been interviewed for roles where the salary being offered is substantially below market value. What a waste of time tbh.
Absolutely. There's no point in wasting either side's time applying to a company that can't afford me. On the flip side, if they're got very nitpicky requirements and are offering a huge salary, that's a good signal that they really are requirements and not just a description of the pie-in-the-sky ideal candidate.