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December 5, 2025

The UK’s Most Transparent Employers for Pay in 2025

Published by:

David Whitfield

CEO & Co-Founder

HR DataHub

Reviewed by:

Alexa Grellet

COO & Co-Founder

HR DataHub

MIN READ time

The UK’s Most Transparent Employers for Pay in 2025

Between November 2024 and November 2025, we analysed 2.8 million UK job ads to understand how transparent UK employers really are about pay. We also conducted a survey to find out how pay transparency correlates to seniority.

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We found that 1 in 4 job ads do not disclose the salary, and there are huge variances between sectors, seniority and individual employers.

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Key findings:
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24% of UK job ads do not include a salary range
Home services, public sector and transport are the most transparent industries
Some major employers still disclose salaries on fewer than 1 in 10 of their job ads
Just 39% of companies reported publishing Director-level pay ranges compared with 67% for frontline roles

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Top 10 biggest UK employers ranked by pay transparency

Rank by pay transparency	Organisation	Salary disclosure rate	Number of job ads
1	Sodexo Ltd	99.6%	5,033
2	Co-op Group	99%	8,461
3	Absolute Interpreting and Translations Ltd	98.1%	16,839
4	Ministry of Justice	97%	5,558
5	NHS	89.7%	167,113
6	Lidl	77.5%	4,118
7	Tesco	73.2%	6,008
8	Mitie	54.5%	6,436
9	Whitbread	54.3%	4,032
10	Language Empire Ltd	24.5%	3,996

Top UK employers ranked by pay transparency (full list)

Use the table to see how your organisation compares, and where competitors sit.

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Rank	Company name	Salary disclosure rate	Number of job ads
1	HC-One Ltd	100%	1,115
2	University of Edinburgh	100%	1,093
3	EdEx	99.8%	1,240
4	MHA	99.8%	1,075
5	Sodexo Ltd	99.6%	5,033
6	Empowering Learning	99.5%	1,580
7	NewsTeam Group Ltd	99.5%	2,035
8	Lifetime Training	99.4%	1,212
9	WR Logistics	99.4%	1,295
10	Thames Water	99.3%	1,663
11	Home Group Limited	99.2%	1,264
12	Co-op Group	99%	8,461
13	Costa Coffee	98.9%	1,366
14	Taskmaster	98.9%	1,133
15	Housing 21	98.8%	1,015
16	Ministry of Defence	98.7%	1,306
17	Lloyds Banking Group	98.6%	1,362
18	Proactive Global	98.5%	1,110
19	Brandon James	98.4%	1,049
20	Constructive Resources Ltd	98.4%	1,046
21	Care Concern Group Limited	98.2%	1,940
22	PRS	98.2%	1,059
23	RTL Group Ltd	98.2%	1,384
24	Baxterstorey	98.1%	1,663
25	Absolute Interpreting and Translations Ltd	98.1%	16,839
26	National Trust	98%	1,043
27	Acorn Care and Education	97.9%	1,173
28	Halfords	97.9%	1,122
29	Heron Foods	97.7%	1,721
30	Runwood Homes	97.5%	1,295
31	Barchester Healthcare Ltd	97.2%	1,396
32	Trac Limited	97.1%	1,604
33	Ministry of Justice	97%	5,558
34	Outcomes First Group	96.9%	1,028
35	Aria Care	96.1%	1,448
36	Voyage Care	94.8%	2,695
37	The Guardian	94.2%	2,967
38	Maria Mallaband Care Group	92.9%	1,290
39	Elysium Healthcare	91.1%	1,174
40	NHS	89.7%	167,113
41	Virgin Money	89.2%	1,267
42	Independent Lives	88.9%	962
43	Iceland	88.6%	983
44	AWD online	88.3%	976
45	Northern Health and Social Care Trust	88.2%	1,038
46	Achieve together	88%	1,337
47	Ad Warrior	87.1%	2,141
48	Veolia	86.7%	1,948
49	Care UK Plc	85.5%	1,777
50	Nuffield Health	85.2%	3,013
51	Thrive Group	83.8%	1,015
52	CP Management Solutions Ltd	83%	1,134
53	Evri	80.6%	1,196
54	Lidl	77.5%	4,118
55	Kids Planet Day Nurseries	76.7%	1,070
56	Certain Advantage	74.5%	1,002
57	Tesco	73.2%	6,008
58	UKCIL	72.7%	1,958
59	Holland & Barrett	71.6%	1,104
60	Moto Hospitality	71.5%	1,247
61	ISS Facilities Services	68.8%	1,072
62	Serco Limited	63.7%	1,852
63	Mencap	61.2%	1,277
64	Optical Express (Westfield) Limited	60.3%	946
65	Malmaison Hotel Du Vin Holdings Limited	56.6%	1,330
66	BAE Systems plc	56.1%	1,245
67	Mitie	54.5%	6,436
68	Whitbread	54.3%	4,032
69	Boots UK Limited	52.9%	2,721
70	ARM	52.7%	1,595
71	Arnold Clark	50.6%	954
72	Liverpool University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust	42.9%	2,161
73	Creative Support	38.5%	1,333
74	Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust	34.6%	2,074
75	Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust	34.4%	1,225
76	Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust	29.3%	1,284
77	Language Empire Ltd	24.5%	3,996
78	Barts Health NHS Trust	20%	2,176
79	Pilgrim’s Europe	16.7%	5,842
80	NatWest Group	14.9%	1,610
81	Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust	14.2%	1,471
82	Morrisons	10.5%	1,076
83	Mitchells & Butlers PLC	10.1%	999
84	GAP Group Ltd	5.2%	1,370
85	Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust	2.9%	1,114
86	Card Factory	2.4%	1,186
87	CNWL NHS Foundation Trust	0.9%	2,732
88	Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trusts	0.4%	965
89	University Hospitals of Derby and Burton NHS Foundation Trust	0.3%	1,018
90	Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust	0.3%	963
91	Leonardo Hotels	0.3%	1,045
92	St Philips Care	0.2%	1,191
93	Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust	0.2%	1,014
94	Mott MacDonald	0.1%	2,204
95	WSP UK Limited	0%	1,861
-	AECOM	0%	2,177
-	Stantec	0%	2,219
-	Estee Lauder Cosmetics Limited	0%	1,209
-	Turner & Townsend	0%	1,200

Most pay transparent employers

HC-One, University of Edinburgh, EdEx and MHA all disclose salaries on virtually every job ad. Care and education providers dominate the top of the ranking, reflecting high-volume frontline recruitment and intense competition for talent.

Least transparent employers

At the other end of the scale, some major brands never disclose pay on their job ads. And several large NHS trusts also publish salary information on under 1% of job postings, despite being part of a system where pay bands are well-defined.

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Survey finds a correlation between seniority and less transparent pay

We also conducted a pay survey, which found that just 39% of companies reported publishing Director-level pay ranges compared with 67% for frontline roles. The correlation between seniority and less transparent pay suggests greater pay inequality at senior levels.

*Responses to “Please indicate your organisation’s approach to including pay information in job postings” split by job seniority.*

UK industries ranked by pay transparency

Rank	Industry	Salary disclosure rate
1	Home services	98.5%
2	Public sector	90.4%
3	Transport, distribution and storage	88.4%
4	Real estate	87.4%
5	Charity and non-profit	86.2%
6	Education	83.5%
7	Construction and engineering	83.3%
8	Energy and utilities	81.8%
9	Professional and business services	80.7%
10	Health and pharmaceutical	80.5%
11	Manufacturing	79.1%
12	Agriculture, forestry and fishing	77.9%
13	Legal	74.7%
14	Retail	71.2%
15	Finance and insurance	70.8%
16	Hospitality and leisure	69.9%
17	Technology and media	65.7%
18	Mining and quarrying	64.6%

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Why pay transparency matters

While there is currently no law requiring UK firms to publicly disclose pay information, companies that resist implementing pay transparency practices may lag behind market expectations and fail to attract top talent to competitors who are seen to be more transparent.

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A Gartner study reported that 44% of candidates did not apply to a job where a salary was not advertised upfront. For employers, withholding pay can mean a smaller, less engaged talent pool and a weaker employer brand.

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The EU Pay Transparency Directive, which will affect all companies with operations in the EU from June 2026, exists to address the gender pay gap and promote equal pay for equal work by enforcing greater transparency in pay structures. UK pay practices will likely be heavily influenced by this directive.

Make smarter pay decisions with HR Datahub

HR Datahub’s salary benchmarking tool uses salary data from 30+ million UK job ads to give companies insights into what they should be paying their employees to remain market-competitive.

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Study methodology:

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HR Datahub analysed 2,792,230 job adverts posted on all the major UK job boards, such as Total Jobs, Reed and others, between 21 November 2024 and 21 November 2025.
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The biggest employers are defined by the number of jobs they advertised across this time frame. Salary disclosure rate is based on the proportion of job ads that include a salary or salary range.HR Datahub analysed 2,792,230 unique job adverts posted on all the major UK job boards, such as Total Jobs, Reed and others, between 21 November 2024 and 21 November 2025.
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The biggest employers are defined by the number of jobs they advertised across this period. Salary disclosure is defined as job adverts that disclose salary ranges and single figures, including hourly rates, day rates and annual rates.
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HR Datahub ran a survey from 1 - 30 September asking HR leaders about their pay transparency practices and views. There were 205 respondents.

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