If you’ve been posting jobs on Indeed, you might have noticed a change: Starting on July 18, according to a press release from Indeed, almost every position on the U.S. Indeed site now has a salary — either entered by the recruiter or estimated by Indeed’s algorithm (as long as Indeed has enough data to provide a salary estimate).
Previously, large companies could opt out of Indeed estimating a salary for each position. But with Indeed’s new change, being too big to share a salary is no longer an option.
Many Companies Still Do Not Voluntarily Share Salary Ranges
While job hunters appreciate salary ranges, some companies are adamant about not sharing salaries.
For example, Colorado State and New York City require job postings to contain salary ranges. When the Equal Pay for Equal Work Act went into effect in 2021, some companies, including big named Nike, simply excluded people who lived in Colorado.
While Nike has since backed down, listing salaries in their remote job postings, other employers have picked up the opposition.
To keep reading, click here: Indeed Will No Longer Exempt Large Employers From Salary Transparency Policy
A company not willing to share salary information with potential job seekers probably subjects its employees to the Mushroom Treatment; that is, keeps them in the dark and feeds them manure.
I take Indeed’s (and LinkedIn’s) estimated salary ranges with a grain of salt. If the algorithm is proprietary, how do I know it’s not wildly off? Especially the latter—LI can’t even align jobs to my profile with any degree of accuracy. Case in point: I went to the jobs page one day and saw “Your profile matches this job,” for an archaeologist position. Y’all, I am in no way qualified to be an archaeologist, lol.
As for employers, if they say the salary is “competitive” without posting any numbers, it’s probably not.
If a company has a salary problem, then hiding it will only last so long. This just means the day of reckoning is actually visible on the horizon for a lot of companies at once.
Anyone that wants to complain about the algorithm can solve it by posting the actual salary range. I would criticize if it generates those estimates based on other markets or skill sets, but not if a company is underpaying their people and just don’t want that fact known.