UK Pay Transparency in Job Adverts: What Tech Ads Show Today
22% of UK tech job ads from employers show a salary: 461 of 2,062 open roles. That excludes recruitment agencies, which we only list when they state pay. The figures are from live ads on salaryshown.com on 22 October 2026.
The UK government has a consultation open on requiring employers to publish a salary or range in job adverts, or to give written pay information before interview for roles not advertised publicly. Press coverage gives the closing date as 27 October 2026; we have only seen that date in one secondary source, so check the government's own page. This post does not take a view on the proposal. It shows what tech adverts look like today.
How many tech ads show a salary
We read the job boards of the 149 UK startups that have open tech roles today and search Reed for other employers. Reed ads from agencies are kept only if they state a salary. That makes the agency row 100% by construction, so it tells you nothing about agencies' habits.
| Source | Open roles | Ads with a salary | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| Startups | 1,203 | 210 | 17.5% |
| Direct employers (via Reed) | 859 | 251 | 29.2% |
| Employers combined | 2,062 | 461 | 22.4% |
| Agencies (salaried ads only) | 2,434 | 2,434 | 100% |
| All sources | 4,496 | 2,895 | 64.4% |
The all-sources figure of 64% looks healthy, but it is carried by the agency row. The employer figure of 22% is the fairer picture of what employers do. For a longer look at named companies, see which UK tech employers show the salary.
London ads show pay less often
Among employers, London ads show a salary far less often than ads elsewhere in the UK.
| Location | Open roles | Ads with a salary | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| London | 1,320 | 198 | 15.0% |
| Elsewhere in the UK | 742 | 263 | 35.4% |
The gap is widest among direct employers: 6.2% of London ads (23 of 372) show a salary, against 46.8% elsewhere (228 of 487). Startups are closer together, at 18.5% in London (175 of 948) and 13.7% elsewhere (35 of 255). We have not tested why the location gap exists.
Junior ads show pay more often than senior ones
| Seniority | Open roles | Ads with a salary | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intern | 23 | 12 | 52.2% |
| Junior | 102 | 47 | 46.1% |
| Lead | 423 | 102 | 24.1% |
| Mid | 881 | 207 | 23.5% |
| Executive | 77 | 14 | 18.2% |
| Senior | 556 | 79 | 14.2% |
These are employer ads only, with agencies excluded. Intern has under 25 ads, so treat that row as indicative. Senior ads have the lowest share: 477 of 556 give no figure.
Which role types show pay
Six of the 12 role families we track, employers only:
| Role family | Open roles | Ads with a salary | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| Infrastructure (DevOps, cloud, IT) | 270 | 95 | 35.2% |
| Tech consulting | 42 | 13 | 31.0% |
| Software engineering | 798 | 193 | 24.2% |
| Data science | 147 | 22 | 15.0% |
| ML engineering | 154 | 19 | 12.3% |
| Data engineering | 98 | 12 | 12.2% |
Across all 12 families, data engineering (12.2%), ML engineering (12.3%), AI product and AI research (both 13.8%) and data science (15.0%) show pay least often. Fewer than 25 employer ads with a salary sit behind each of data science, ML engineering and data engineering. The data engineer salary page gives a median from 97 ads with pay, but only 12 of them come from employers and the other 85 are agency ads. Tech consulting has only 42 employer ads in total.
What this means if you are applying
If you are looking at a role with no figure, the quickest check is the advertised range for the same job title and level on the salary guides, then asking for the band at the first call. Our guide to finding the salary when an ad doesn't show one walks through it step by step. The market data page shows medians by role, and the full list of roles is on the jobs page. For which roles pay most on paper, see highest-paying UK tech roles.
Limits of these figures
- They cover tech roles at the 149 startups with open roles plus Reed searches. They are not every UK job ad.
- A salary counts as shown only if the ad gives a figure or range. Ads saying "competitive" count as not shown.
- Shares move daily as roles open and close.
Figures taken on 22 October 2026 from salaryshown.com.