Companies that include salary ranges in job listings are reaping the benefits

More than 80% of hiring managers across the country say they now include salary information in job listings, according to new research from the employment firm Robert Half. Data from ZipRecruiter suggests that the number that actually do in practice is lower — closer to 40%, at least for jobs posted on that particular site.

Whatever the figure though, companies say that they notice benefits.

A growing number of states are requiring companies to include a salary range in job listings. Those laws make a difference, per ZipRecruiters’s Julia Pollak.

“The share of job postings with pay posted rises after a law, a pay transparency law, is introduced,” she said. “It goes from around 20% to 30% before the law to about 50% to 60% after the law.”

Sometimes the salary ranges are huge and don’t actually tell applicants all that much. But that’s not typical, Pollak added.

And, big range or small, “job postings that include salary data receive about 50% more applications on average,” Pollak said. “And they’re actually three times more likely to deliver quality candidates.”

Companies are starting to recognize this — even in states that don’t require it, per Brandi Britton at Robert Half.

“About six in 10 hiring managers found that including the salary information does help them attract more qualified candidates,” she said.

Still, some industries are more transparent than others. More than half of healthcare jobs on ZipRecruiter include a salary range. In tech, it’s only around 20%.