This Practice Matters When Posting a Job
With the only job board in Maine exclusively dedicated to nonprofit employment opportunities and over 16,000 visits per month, we recognize our unique position to influence more inclusive and equitable hiring processes in the sector. One step we’ve taken is requiring a salary or wage in job postings, which is a practice that models transparency and is one recommended strategy for advancing equitable compensation.
Why is sharing wage/salary range a good practice?
When employers disclose compensation information, they:
- Avoid wasted time and effort: Candidates do not go through the entire job application process only to decline an offer based on the pay, which is disappointing for everyone involved.
- Break cycles of inequity: Research has shown that people with privilege are more experienced at negotiating higher wages during the interview process, perpetuating pay disparities based on gender, race, etc. Additionally, some employers base compensation on a candidate’s previous salary/wage, which can lock candidates into a cycle of lower pay.
- Demonstrate a culture of transparency: Job seekers are vetting your organization as much as you are vetting candidates, and that starts with your job ad. Listing a wage/salary signals a culture of transparency. We know anecdotally that some job seekers will rule out any opportunity where the posting does not include compensation information.
- For more on why sharing wage/salary range is good practice, check out these articles:
- https://nonprofitaf.com/2015/06/when-you-dont-disclose-salary-range-on-a-job-posting-a-unicorn-loses-its-wings/
- http://trainyourboard.com/hiring-in-a-just-equitable-way/
- https://nonprofitaf.com/2020/09/not-showing-the-salary-range-in-job-postings-is-archaic-and-inequitable-so-why-do-we-keep-doing-it/
What we’ve learned so far
Requiring this field does increase transparency. We’ve gradually shifted our approach to the salary/wage field on our job board form – first adding language to the job posting form to start educating job posters on the importance of including a salary and then requiring the field – and we’ve seen great improvement. Approximately 60 percent of job postings now include numeric wage/salary information, while some organizations are fulfilling the form’s requirement with descriptive text. [April 2021 update: more than 90% of job postings are now in compliance; organizations that post a job without salary information are reminded of the policy, provided with resources about our policy and rationale to circulate internally, and informed that future posts will not be approved without wage information.]
We’re excited to see Maine nonprofits leading the way with this practice. Let’s keep moving the needle! Moving forward, we will be reaching out to organizations who list non-numeric responses (such as “dependent on experience” or “TBD”) in the salary field to share resources on this important practice and to encourage them to list salary or hourly wage ranges or starting salaries in their postings. Suggested formats include “salary starts at $X” or “hourly wage range $X to $Y”. We recognize that many of the people posting jobs are not necessarily the ones making decisions about what information to include in a posting. Our hope is that we can equip them with helpful information to shift their organization’s internal practice around including salaries in job postings.
Additional equitable and inclusive hiring practices
Specifying a salary or range is just one way organizations can be more equitable and inclusive in their hiring practices. If you’re interested in other steps your organization can take, check out our resource library. If you know of additional resources , please share them with us.