Anyone who applies and wants to know what the salary is for an advertised position will usually not find out directly in the respective job advertisement. However, that is apparently changing: in the first half of 2026, 24.1 percent of all advertised positions contained salary information, the first noticeable increase in years. In 2024 and 2025 the proportion remained constant at 22.6 percent. This is shown by an evaluation by the market research company Index. The figures are available exclusively to human resources.
The increase is particularly notable because the job market is shrinking at the same time. The number of advertised positions fell from 6.67 million in the first half of 2024 to 6.14 in the first half of 2025 to now 5.87 million.
Nevertheless, the proportion of job advertisements with salary information is increasing, and at the same time the number of companies that mention salaries is growing by 13.4 percent to 148,758. Although employers currently have to compete less for applicants, more companies are apparently focusing on transparency.
EU directive is already having an impact
The trigger is a regulation that usually does not yet apply directly in Germany: The EU Pay Transparency Directive should have been implemented into German law by June 7, 2026. The deadline has passed and an implementing law is still missing. The Federal Ministry for Family Affairs is targeting the beginning of 2027, and individual reporting obligations should not come into effect until 2028.
The directive does not explicitly require employers to mention the salary in the job advertisement. However, it requires that applicants find out the starting salary or salary range as early as possible, at the latest before the interview. For many companies, job advertisements are the easiest way to meet this requirement.
The fact that the proportion of salary information is increasing right now speaks for an announcement effect. The failure to implement it does not remain entirely without consequences: since June 8, 2026, courts have had to interpret existing law in the light of the directive. In addition, the principle of equal pay from Article 157 of the EU Treaty applies directly.
Managers are catching up on transparency
According to the index numbers, transparency changes most clearly at the upper levels of the hierarchy, i.e. where salaries have previously been particularly rarely disclosed. For heads of divisions and main departments, the proportion of job advertisements with salary information rose from 5.7 to 11.3 percent. For board members and managing directors it climbed from 7.8 to 12.4 percent, and for department and group managers from 13.1 to 17.4 percent.
Despite these increases, the level remains low. While more than a third of job advertisements for unskilled jobs mention a salary, this is often still omitted at the highest management levels.
Healthcare professions are gaining, sales are losing
There are also clear differences between the professional groups. Health, medicine and social services recorded the largest increase with an increase from 22.2 to 27.8 percent. This is followed by legal and taxation with 16.3 to 20.9 percent and organization and project management with 11.2 to 15.4 percent. Sales, on the other hand, are developing against the general trend. Here, the proportion of job advertisements with salary information fell from 23.3 to 19.7 percent.
Regionally, North Rhine-Westphalia is at the top with 27.6 percent. Berlin and Baden-Württemberg recorded the strongest growth. Saarland comes last with 18.8 percent.
There are also clear differences between industries. Public administration is experiencing particularly strong growth. There, the proportion of job advertisements with salary information increased by 5.4 points. This fits with the legal framework, as the directive applies directly to public employers. However, the collection industry for other economic services has the highest proportion, which, according to the index, consists predominantly of personnel service providers. Around 40 percent of job advertisements there already contain salary information.
HR, of all things, remains below average
However, the picture in human resources is less convincing. The very industry that will be responsible for organizing and supporting pay transparency in many companies in the future often mentions below-average salaries in its own job offers.
Only 17.4 percent of HR job advertisements contain salary information; that is – 6.7 points less than the overall average. This value has hardly changed compared to the previous year. This also raises a question of credibility: Anyone who demands more transparency from others should also set an example in their own recruiting.
Implementation is a long time coming
According to experts, it will probably take some time before the German implementation law comes into force. However, developments on the job market show that many employers are already increasing their salary transparency. The coming months will show whether this trend will continue through to legal implementation.
Info
The Study
The study by the Berlin personnel market research Index Research was created exclusively for the human resources industry (as of July 2026). The basis is job advertisements from 197 print media, 304 online exchanges, the Federal Employment Agency’s job portal and around 900,000 company websites. The first half of 2024, 2025 and 2026 are compared. The proportion of jobs and positions with salary information in the total job offer was examined, overall as well as by professional groups, industries, hierarchy levels and federal states. For the first half of 2026, the basis includes around 5.87 million advertised positions, of which 1.41 million or 24.1 percent contained salary information, distributed across 148,758 companies.
The EU Pay Transparency Directive
The EU Pay Transparency Directive (Directive (EU) 2023/970) requires employers to inform applicants of their starting salary or salary range before the interview. Although it is not mandatory to provide information directly in the job advertisement, it is the easiest way to fulfill this obligation. Questions about previous earnings will be inadmissible in the future. Information and transparency obligations apply to all employers, regardless of company size. Reporting obligations on the gender pay gap apply to 100 or more employees. The implementation deadline ended on June 7, 2026. Germany missed it; the implementation law is expected at the beginning of 2027. Since June 8, 2026, courts have had to interpret existing law in accordance with the directives.
Sven Frost is responsible for HR tech, which includes the areas of digitalization, HR software, time and access, SAP and outsourcing. He also writes about recruiting and employer branding. He continues to be responsible for the editorial planning of various special human resources publications.
