Should employers include salary information in their Job Postings?

Should employers include salary information in their Job Postings?

I received this question on another online platform: Quora.com. Here was my answer and I hope it is helpful for you:

I am assuming you are speaking of job postings that are placed on job boards or on the career site for external candidates to view. 

If that is the case, my suggestion would be to include salary ranges. A majority of companies would rather not, because there are some complex issues related to this. 

However, it is best practice if a company can find a way to do so. It will help attract more of the right candidates to apply for the job. 

Many candidates are starting to demand salary range filters to be included in order to help them with filtering jobs in the search. This poses a problem for the job boards when salaries are missing from the job description. 

Job Boards Guess Salary If Missing

So in the cases where there is no salary listed, many of the major job boards will insert an estimated guess of the salary. You can see how this could be problematic if the number is too far off from the reality of that particular job or position. 

The guess is usually based on self reported information, but the data may be highly inaccurate because it may not take into consideration the particulars of the exact position, or the experience and skill set of the person who reported their salary. These numbers are often inaccurate for this reason.

So estimated guess inaccuracies is my second reason as to why a salary range should be reported. It is also best practice for a company to have salary ranges better standardized across their employees which helps to avoid discriminatory pay gaps.