The campaign calls for a ‘salary reset’ and demands that it becomes illegal for companies to ask a candidate’s salary history, while adding a legal requirement to list salary details on job adverts.

A statement from Liberty Hive said: “Failure to list salaries on job adverts as well as asking a candidate’s salary history are two processes that uphold inequality and slow the pace of change, especially for those who’ve been historically underpaid, mainly women and those from underrepresented groups.”

The movement is led in the UK by the founders of Liberty Hive, a dedicated technology platform for media and marketing specialists, Kate Merritt and Laura Braithwaite.

Liberty Hive connects media and marketing candidates, with businesses for short-term, parental cover or permanent positions. It has also launched the Inclusive Talent Community by the company to support its members as they make the transition to be salary transparent.

The state of New York is the most recent state in the US that has made salary transparency law [November 2022] but back in 2018, Iceland introduced the first policy in the world that requires companies and institutions with more than 25 employees to prove that they pay men and women equally for a job of equal value. Beginning in 2020, certification became a requirement and companies without certification incur a daily fine. Countries that have taken this step are reporting a narrowing in gender and ethnicity pay gaps by as much as 13%.

In the UK, a salary transparency pilot scheme was launched in March 2022, where participating employers list salary details on job adverts and stop asking about salary history during recruitment. The scheme is run by Baroness Stedman-Scott. 

Liberty Hive founders Merritt and Braithwaite said: “Every role we post will have a salary range guide, we won’t ask our candidates the salary history question and we will work with our agency partners to share best inclusive recruitment practice. We will leverage our platform to advocate for change. We’re also introducing new technology to our portal, which will provide us with a broader data set that we can use to provide clients with benchmarking for specific roles as needed.

“We believe if you do one thing in 2023 to demonstrate your commitment to inclusive recruitment – salary transparency – a salary reset is the most powerful action you can take.”

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