Why SML Recommends Salary Transparency

At SML, our mission has always been to connect the right candidates with the right opportunities quickly, fairly, and effectively. As part of that commitment, we have followed salary transparency laws in New York and California for over two years, consistently including salary brackets in our job postings for roles in those states.

Now, we’re encouraging all our clients globally to adopt the same practice. This shift reflects evolving candidate expectations, legal developments, and what we believe is best practice for fair and efficient hiring.

Here’s how salary transparency benefits your business:

Shaping the Role and Attracting the Right Talent

When salary ranges are confirmed and disclosed upfront, the employer is better able to plan ahead and to know what costs they are committing to, and the candidates can better assess whether a role aligns with their expectations and needs. This helps ensure applications come from people who are not only qualified, but genuinely motivated, and helps avoid costly misalignment later in the hiring process.

Faster, More Efficient Hiring

Salary transparency enables SML to work more efficiently on your behalf. With clear salary information, we can focus our outreach more effectively, leveraging our broad network and social media reach to deliver faster results.

Greater Trust with Candidates

While our job postings remain anonymised to protect client confidentiality, including a salary range signals a commitment to fairness and openness. Today’s candidates are increasingly looking for employers who reflect their values, and pay transparency is a powerful indicator of integrity.

Progress Toward Pay Equity

Disclosing salary brackets helps tackle gender and ethnicity-based pay gaps by standardising the offer process and reducing room for unconscious bias in negotiation. For many employers, this also supports broader diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives.Through our salary and insights reporting, we are working to improve equity across our sector; transparent pay practices are central to that mission.

Alignment With Legal Trends

Transparency isn’t just a response to candidate demand, it’s also where regulation is heading. The UK government has committed to introducing legislation that will require employers to include salary details in job adverts—a move aimed at addressing pay inequality. We’ve already seen similar legislation rolled out across multiple U.S. states, including New York, California and Colorado, where employers must legally list pay ranges in job postings. The UK is heading in the same direction, and we believe it’s wise to be ahead of the curve.

Our Commitment

We’re encouraging all employers we work with to include salary brackets in every vacancy post we share on their behalf. SML will provide guidance on structuring these ranges to ensure they’re competitive, equitable, and aligned with your broader hiring strategy.

Being transparent about pay isn’t just a box to tick, it’s a strategic advantage. It builds trust, enhances your employer brand, and drives better hiring outcomes. It’s also a meaningful step toward a more open, inclusive, and effective recruitment process.

We understand that there are implications for all businesses making the move to salary transparency, how to address internal pay inequality, how to communicate new pay structures to existing employees, if you’re an employer with questions about how to approach salary transparency, we’d be happy to advise. We also offer a benchmarking service to help you ensure current pay brackets are competitive.