Years ago, shortly after arriving in London, a journalist with previous editorial experience in Australia encountered a challenging job application process that highlighted longstanding issues surrounding salary transparency and gender pay disparities. The position was for a deputy editor role at a news magazine, advertised with a detailed application requirement including an assessment of the publication and proposed cover story ideas. However, one question—asking for the applicant’s preferred salary—proved difficult to answer.

Seeking guidance, she consulted two male journalist colleagues in London who advised her to request a salary at least equivalent to her previous pay in Sydney, adjusted for the unfavorable exchange rate and London’s higher cost of living. Following their advice, she quoted a figure significantly higher than what the magazine’s editor was earning. Although her application was well received and she secured an interview, the editor privately questioned her about the salary expectation, revealing that it exceeded his own pay. The incident left the applicant feeling mortified and aware she had not adequately researched market standards.

Reflecting on the experience years later, she notes that women are often counseled to ask for less in salary negotiations, a factor contributing to the persistent gender pay gap. In contrast, her embarrassing misstep involved asking for too much. She also emphasized how cumbersome it would have been if the job advertisement had included a clear starting salary or pay range. Such transparency would have allowed applicants to better evaluate the opportunity and avoid awkward negotiations, while also enabling employees to benchmark their pay more effectively.

The practice of employers not disclosing salaries publicly and requesting applicants’ salary histories perpetuates wage disparities, particularly affecting women and ethnic minorities. Revealing past lower pay can undermine candidates’ ability to negotiate for equitable compensation, especially when transitioning from lower-paid sectors such as charities. This dynamic has challenged the efficacy of traditional advice encouraging individuals, especially women, to “lean in” and improve their negotiation skills, prompting calls for systemic change.

In response, the European Union has introduced a directive mandating employers to disclose starting salaries or pay ranges in job advertisements and to prohibit inquiries about applicants’ pay histories. While several US states have adopted similar rules, the implementation across the EU remains incomplete, with many countries yet to transpose the directive into national law ahead of the June 2026 deadline. Germany, the bloc’s largest economy, illustrates the slow progress: data indicates less than 15 percent of job postings there include explicit salary information, with transparency particularly scarce in finance and banking sectors where gender pay gaps tend to be wider.

Grassroots initiatives like Female X Finance, a start-up founded in the Netherlands, aim to support women’s career advancement by providing detailed salary and bonus surveys across sectors such as investment banking, mergers and acquisitions, and private equity in the UK and the Netherlands. The founder’s retrospective wish is that such data and regulatory measures had existed during that earlier job search, underscoring the importance of pay transparency in addressing entrenched compensation inequalities.

Ultimately, the deputy editor position went to an internal candidate, and while the applicant believes they likely performed well, she remains curious about the salary they received, highlighting ongoing questions about fairness and openness in pay practices.