**"Aussie Jobseekers Face Stark Pay Crisis as Employers Slammed for Exploiting Desperation"**

Australian job seekers are fed up with employment ads not displaying the salary or, at the very least, the salary range . New research from Indeed found 96 per cent of people are more likely to apply for roles that contain salary information over those that don't.

A further 60 per cent said pay visibility is the 'single most important aspect' of the job application process. However, recruitment expert Tammie Christofis Ballis told Yahoo Finance why the system isn't likely to change anytime soon.

"It's an employer's market. They can do whatever they like because they've got the pick of the bunch," she said.

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"A couple of years ago, the trend was companies were showing the salary, but I think now that they've got so many applicants, there are so many people in the job market and desperate for work, they can get away with paying lower and not showing the salary."

Ballis said more often than not, if the salary isn't shown, it's because it's not a competitive rate.

Unfortunately for job seekers, they usually only find out how much the job is paying after sending off their CV and getting approved for a first-round interview.

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Sometimes, pay won't come up until a second or even third interview. But the Realistic Careers recruiter said job hunters should be proactive and not wait for the pay conversation to come up too far down the line.

"I actually recommend my clients to ask in the first phone call," she told Yahoo Finance .

"Ask at the end of the phone interview so that way you don't look like you're just there for the pay and you've had a proper professional conversation with them.

"But also you want to make sure that you're not wasting your time either."

Companies and bosses urged to fix salary transparency issue

Indeed's research found pay transparency is essential as Aussies battle a tough job market and cost-of-living crisis .

An overwhelming 95 per cent of people surveyed by the job site said they would be more inclined to trust an employer if they were upfront about the pay.

Not disclosing the salary is the number one issue when people are searching for a new role, and even listed higher than unrealistic job requirements or expectations.

Just over a third of job ads currently feature information about pay, which is a big lift from the 21 per cent recorded in 2019. It can also be a win for employers if they disclose how much they're paying for a role.

"Job ads that include salary details typically received 30 per cent more applications," Callam Pickering, APAC economist at Indeed, told Yahoo Finance .

"Beyond just attracting applications, transparency signals that an employer is serious about fairness and open communication.

"Being upfront about pay allows jobseekers to assess opportunities on a more equal footing—it saves time, builds trust, and reflects a workplace that values openness."

Ballis said it's still worth sending in your application even if the salary isn't disclosed as it can be good experience going through the interview process, and you could even negotiate the salary if it's below your expectations.

Another key reason why salary can be hidden

While some employers don't want to be upfront with how much they're paying, Ballis highlighted another reason to keep that information hidden.

"When they don't advertise the salary, as much as I hate this, they're keeping in mind their current employees," she told Yahoo Finance .

She said staff might come across an ad from their company that's similar or exactly the same role as theirs but the offer is much higher than they're being paid.

This can cause discontent among your team and lead to much bigger problems.

How to find a job salary when it's not advertised

When companies post a job ad on the likes of SEEK, Indeed, LinkedIn and others, they can still have the salary listed within site coding, but hidden from regular viewing.

Pickering said if you wanted to see if a role matched your pay expectations, you could play with the salary range settings on the job sites, and if the ad disappeared, then it meant it was out of your range.

There's also a site called What's The Salary, which will do that hard work for you.

If you paste a SEEK job advert link into that search engine, it will usually give you a fairly accurate pay range.

"Each time a job is submitted, we query SEEK to see if it can pair the job in question with a specific salary," it said on its site.

"If SEEK successfully finds a match, the tool incrementally adds $1000 to the salary until no further matches are found. The range is determined once SEEK returns a negative response."

What's the Salary's mission is to provide more "transparency" in the job-hunting realm in Australia and New Zealand and it hopes by publishing salary ranges, recruiters and companies will be "more forthcoming" with the vital information.

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This article originally appeared on Yahoo Finance AU at https://au.finance.yahoo.com/news/bleak-pay-reality-exposed-for-desperate-aussie-jobseekers-as-employers-called-out-over-major-issue-014950150.html