Businesses are being more upfront about how much they pay as workers seek out higher wages, according to report

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Businesses are being more upfront about how much they pay as workers seek out higher wages, according to report
Subway's tuna sub is facing allegations about what it really contains. Mary Meisenzahl/Insider
  • A new report from Bloomberg finds that more job postings say upfront how much they pay.
  • It's one potential measure for luring in new workers and showcasing higher pay.
  • The transparency in postings comes amidst labor tightness, as workers quit en masse.
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In a labor market where workers are quitting en masse, seeking out better positions, and feeling the impact of employers raising wages, companies are scrambling to staff up.

One new measure they're taking: Saying just how much their open roles pay. A new report from Bloomberg looks at data from Emsi Burning Glass, an analytics firm, that tracks how many job postings include compensation information.

According to Bloomberg, the answer is a whole lot more: Specifically, 12% of listings in 2021's second quarter included it. Meanwhile, in 2019, just 8% of listings from the same time included salary information.

Particularly hard-hit industries increased their job postings with salary information the most. In 2019, just 5% of restaurant host positions included salary information; that climbed up to 14% in 2021. Prospective nurse practitioners also got a lot more clarity in how much they might get paid, with 18% of listings including information - a stark contrast to just 6% in 2019.

As Bloomberg notes, the transparency comes as some states enact mandatory salary disclosure measures. Newer legislation in Colorado mandates that employers tell applicants just how much the role pays, in an effort to ensure workers are being equally paid. But, as Insider's Allana Akhtar reported, some companies started posting job listings that explicitly excluded applicants from Colorado.

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But while postings with salaries went up in Colorado, and many other regions - especially the Great Lakes - they actually dipped in some areas. New England and the West saw the number of job postings laying out salaries decline.

The increase come amidst a shift in power toward the worker as businesses struggle to hire. The adage that "nobody wants to work right now" has persisted throughout the pandemic, but there's more to that narrative.

Concerns over COVID-19 and childcare are keeping some workers out of the workplace. Other workers are simply telling their old jobs to "shove it" and quitting. Insider's Áine Cain reported on the new phenomenon of rage quitting, where workers simply left their jobs after getting fed up over difficult conditions - many of which were exacerbated by the pandemic.

Experts previously told Insider that one way to lure in workers is boosting wages. Low-paying industries have started to do just that; Tim Dupree, the president of Kelly Services' Professional and Industrial unit, told Bloomberg that low-paying jobs could be explicitly posting salaries in an effort to showcase that their wages are not as low as they once were. It's another example of traditionally low-paying companies vying for workers, and finding that their old methods aren't enough.

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