Employer Information Advantages During Recruitment

Income inequality data shows there are many workers who accept unfair offers. Do they knowingly accept unfair pay because they lack information?

Pay Secrecy

Try to find information about how much a job or a company pays. Count the number of job adverts you spot that contains a salary range, we recommend you note those organisations down so you know who to apply to if you’re ever unemployed. Pay secrecy is an aggressive virus that has lethally contaminated South Africa while other parts of the world are regulating against it.

New York City has banned job adverts that are not upfront about a salary range. If employers are caught, the NYC Human Rights Commission makes them pay hefty penalties.

Employers strip wage information from the internet, increasing the cost of job seeking and leading to the public perception that we are not entitled to know about employer pay.

This overt power is called Monopsony.

Can job applicants be coerced into accepting an unfair offer because they don’t know better?

Information Advantages

During wage negotiation, recruiters and employers usually have more information about pay than applicants.

This means they have the advantage. If one party involved in a negotiation has more information than the other, lawyers and economists refer to the situation as information asymmetry.

Asymmetry is Alarming

Recruiters and employers abuse positions of power when coercing job applicants into divulging their pay history and compensation information without ever being upfront about pay themselves.

Unequal access to information

The South African Constitution says  ‘everyone is entitled to fair labour practice’ yet clearly job applicants are not treated fairly.

When employers advertise vacancies without being transparent about pay, they adopt information asymmetry.

These unfair firms shift the balance of power and information in their favour. The fewer information applicants have about pay, the less power they have when negotiating.

The less job applicants know about a potential employer’s wage offer, the more likely they are to accept unfair offers. 

Pay Slip Ban SA champions the cause of fairness during recruitment processes and wage negotiation.

Employer pay secrecy during recruitment places them at an unfair advantage when competing for talent.

Let’s stop unfair power together