Where employers publish pay and what they offer

Spotlight, October 17, 2026

Only 4.7% of online vacancies disclose compensation, led by the United States and France, while posted salaries reveal wide functional disparities.

Salary transparency remains rare across international labour markets. According to the Arihaan crawl of 111,756 employer career sites tracking 103,843 companies across 227 countries on 17 October 2026, only 4.7% of the 3.96 million open vacancies include explicit pay figures. For jobseekers and employers alike, this widespread absence of upfront compensation data preserves information asymmetry across major economies, even as flexible work arrangements stabilise, with remote roles at 6.8% and hybrid roles at 4.5% of open jobs.

The willingness to state salary ranges varies sharply by jurisdiction and occupational discipline. While statutory disclosure requirements and recruitment competition in select locations have prompted employers to reveal salary ranges, default corporate practice across most regions remains complete compensation opacity.

Transparency rates reflect geographic concentration

Compensation disclosure is heavily concentrated in a small group of national markets. According to the Arihaan crawl, vacancies in the United States display pay in 6.2% of listings across 2.47 million open jobs, while France records 5.9% across 86,380 positions. The United Kingdom follows at 3.6% across 142,175 openings, Spain at 3.2% across 30,264 postings, and Canada at 2.6% across 139,262 roles. By contrast, European peers such as Germany and the Netherlands register published pay rates of just 0.6% and 0.4%, respectively.

In major Asian hiring markets, stated compensation is even less prevalent. Disclosed pay appears in 0.1% of openings in India across 154,533 listings, 0.2% in China across 23,435 vacancies, and 0.5% in Singapore across 29,345 jobs. This broad geographic divergence shows that voluntary pay disclosure has gained minimal traction globally unless prompted by local regulatory mandates or distinct recruitment practices.

Technical disciplines command the highest advertised packages

Across United States vacancies with published compensation, the overall median annual wage sits at $72,384. Posted figures reveal a substantial premium for specialised technical functions. Software Engineering leads all categories with a median advertised annual salary of $200,000 across 5,091 positions, flanked by a 25th percentile of $160,000 and a 75th percentile of $240,000.

Data and AI roles follow with a median of $187,350 across 2,124 vacancies, alongside Product and Design at $185,000 and Cybersecurity at $170,000. Executive and General Management posts a median of $160,000. At the opposite end of the distribution, high-volume operational categories reflect lower medians, including Operations and Logistics at $73,278 across 13,460 jobs, Administrative roles at $51,002 across 3,266 positions, and Retail and Hospitality at $37,440 across 13,661 roles.

Disclosure rates do not correlate directly with pay levels. Legal and Compliance exhibits the highest functional disclosure rate at 6.4%, followed by Education and Training at 5.9%. Conversely, Executive and General Management posts a 3.6% disclosure rate, while Retail and Hospitality records just 2.8%.

Like for like movements point to targeted adjustments

Broader labour indicators paint a measured background. According to BLS JOLTS, United States job openings stood at 7.08 million in August 2026 with a quits rate of 1.9%, while the BLS Current Population Survey reported an unemployment rate of 4.2% for September 2026. Within this setting, tracking like-for-like employers provides insight into how organizations adjust published wage brackets.

For Executive and General Management roles, the median annual pay midpoint across 1,876 comparable vacancies rose 2.4% over the week to 17 October 2026, increasing from $150,000 to $153,600. Geographic adjustments also occur among fixed panels of employers. In Germany, like-for-like advertised compensation across 613 open roles with published pay increased 2.1% in the week, moving from $71,800 to $73,400. These shifts indicate that even within low-disclosure environments, selective salary benchmarking remains active as employers compete for critical capabilities.

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