According to the official website of the British government, on 5 November the government presented the Say what you pay initiative, which aims to make it compulsory to state salaries in job adverts. The initiative may be relevant to Ukrainian employers and employees in terms of hiring practices and pay transparency.
What the initiative entails
If the law is passed, companies will be required to include pay information in job adverts, and salary disclosure will cease to be a voluntary practice. According to research by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) for 2024, only 41% of employers always state a salary range, and 18% always publish a specific figure.
The government notes that the absence of pay information forces candidates to spend time applying and interviewing without understanding the financial terms, which particularly affects young people seeking their first job. According to preliminary results of government consultations, 94% of respondents and 93% of business representatives supported mandatory salary disclosure.
When the new rules could take effect
For now the initiative exists at the bill stage: the government promises to prepare the relevant bill as soon as possible but does not give specific timelines for passage or coming into force. In the government consultation document, published in July 2026, it discussed what exact information should be disclosed — a specific figure, a range, or an indicative rate — and the possibility of stating additional remuneration conditions.
If a company does not publish an open advert, the government proposes to require it to notify the candidate of pay in writing before the interview. Until the law is adopted, the government is urging employers to voluntarily state salaries in job adverts now.
Where similar requirements already apply
According to research by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), as of 2025 mandatory disclosure of salary or salary ranges in job adverts at a national level was in force in five countries: Austria, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania and Slovakia. In Austria such requirements have been in place for more than ten years; Lithuania introduced them in 2019.
Implementing similar rules in the United Kingdom could influence international hiring practices and serve as an example for other countries reviewing pay transparency rules.
