Written by Alex Swain, Managing Director of Ultimate Asset
You find an interesting opportunity, complete an application and attend an initial interview, only to discover that the salary is significantly below your expectations.
We hear this story regularly and, until now, there has been relatively little you could do to avoid it.
Most recruitment agencies within our industry will be transparent about salary ranges from the outset. However, we know the same rule does not always apply when businesses are hiring directly.
New government proposals could make that situation far less common.
The Cabinet Office has launched a consultation into salary transparency, but what exactly is being considered?
Under the proposals, employers could be required to include pay information within job adverts. This could mean publishing an exact salary, a salary range or a benchmark rate.
The government is also considering whether additional financial information, such as bonuses and other benefits, should be disclosed.
Where a role is not publicly advertised, employers could instead be required to provide you with this information in writing before an interview takes place.
Although the consultation is still at an early stage, we see this as a positive step.
Greater transparency could help you make better-informed decisions, reduce the time you spend pursuing unsuitable opportunities and create a clearer and fairer jobs market.
That said, there are still potential dangers.
Could transparency become a box-ticking exercise?
The biggest risk is that salary transparency becomes little more than a box-ticking exercise.
An employer could technically comply by publishing an extremely broad salary range without explaining where most candidates are likely to sit within it or what would be required to secure the upper end.
A role advertised at £60,000 to £100,000 may appear transparent, but that information offers limited value if the employer has no realistic intention of hiring anyone above £70,000.
There is also the question of total compensation.
In sales and commercial roles, your base salary is only one part of the package. Bonus, commission, equity and other benefits can materially change the value of an opportunity, but only when they are clearly explained and realistically achievable.
An advertised OTE can be particularly misleading without context around the target, commission structure and how many people within the existing team are currently achieving it.
There is also a risk that published salary ranges become too restrictive.
Employers may rely too heavily on fixed bands, leaving less flexibility for exceptional candidates or people with valuable transferable experience who do not fit a traditional profile.
Ultimately, publishing a number is not the same as creating genuine transparency.
What should you still ask as a candidate?
Even if salary information becomes mandatory, you should not assume that a published figure tells you the full story.
A salary range is a useful starting point, but you still need to understand how the employer has arrived at it and what the complete package actually looks like.
You should consider asking:
- Is the full advertised salary range genuinely available?
- What will determine where I sit within that range?
- What experience or results would I need to demonstrate to secure the upper end?
- Does the advertised figure refer to base salary, or does it include bonus and commission?
- How will my bonus or commission be calculated?
- What percentage of the existing team currently achieves the advertised OTE?
- Are there any thresholds, caps or conditions attached to commission payments?
- Is equity included and, realistically, how should I assess its potential value?
- How frequently will my salary be reviewed?
- What progression opportunities exist beyond the advertised range?
If you are considering a sales role, it is especially important to look beyond the headline OTE.
A £100,000 OTE could represent two very different opportunities depending on the split between base salary and commission, the target you will be expected to achieve, the average deal cycle and how consistently the existing team is hitting quota.
Greater transparency should help you make a more informed decision, but it should never replace open and honest conversations throughout the hiring process.
At Ultimate Asset, we have always been transparent about the full package from the outset, including salary, bonus, commission and wider benefits, and we will continue to be.
