Browsing job listings is now a lot like browsing real estate listings — you check them out even if you're not in the market for something new.
Why it matters: Job posts are hot now thanks to New York City's new salary transparency law, which requires employers to post salary ranges on job listings.
- The numbers make postings a lot more interesting, both job seekers and listing lookie-loos told Axios.
"I click on every posting in NY to see what the range is purely out of curiosity," Renee Ernst, a Microsoft employee who lives on the West Coast, told Axios on LinkedIn.
- "People are doing the job-hunting equivalent of daydreaming about mega-mansions," said Phoebe Gavin, executive director of talent and development at Vox.
- "I've definitely been looking to see what other companies are paying for equivalent work so I can better understand my value," an accounts director in Brooklyn wrote in a Slack group about pay.
- Others looking at the numbers are wondering if it's time to ask for a raise. "I should be making more," one podcast producer in New York said after a few days of gawking.
By the numbers: This is a new law, so there's not great data yet on its impact. But Axios' admittedly unscientific poll on Twitter turned up some interesting results.
- We asked if people were looking at job listings more often now because of these numbers. Nearly half of the 446 respondents said yes. Another 30% didn't know about the new law. Only 20% said they weren't looking more.
"Job seekers love pay ranges in job postings," says Scott Dobroski, a vice president at the jobs site Indeed.
- Listings with pay information see a 30% increase in applications, the company said, noting that more than a third of listings on Indeed have these numbers. They're expecting that share to grow as salary transparency becomes more popular.
Reality check: Not all companies are putting out numbers. Many people said they hadn't seen salary ranges on job postings in New York in their field — and in some cases companies bury the information at the bottom of a listing, or link out to a separate page.
- "I expect they'll be referenced a lot in employee year-end reviews," and workers will use the ranges to make the case for promotions and raises, said Erin Grau, cofounder of Charter, a media and services company focused on the future of work.
- In the tech sector, on the other hand, people are so nervous about layoffs that none of this feels too relevant at the moment, said Jordan Sale, a general manager at Rora, a salary negotiation consulting firm. "Things feel kind of scary."
What to watch: Whether or not these numbers prove to be practically useful is an open question. Some of the salary ranges companies list are too wide to be useful, experts told Axios.
- Grau pointed to an advisory manager role paying between $98,000 and $232,000. "Companies are really stretching the definition of transparent."
