Only 31% of Job Listings Show a Salary: JobFu Pay Transparency Report 2026

Only 31.3% of the 26,129 job listings JobFu saw between January and October 2026 published a salary. US listings published pay 28.0% of the time, UK listings 16.5% and German listings 13.8%, even as new pay transparency rules took effect on both sides of the Atlantic. Where US listings did publish a range, the median gap between the bottom and the top was $47,220.

The headline numbers

• 31.3% of unique listings included a salary or salary range (8,191 of 26,129).
• US: 28.0%. Fewer than three in ten US listings showed pay, despite pay range laws in states such as California, Colorado, New York and Washington, and new laws in Virginia, Maine and Connecticut in 2026.
• UK: 16.5%, Germany: 13.8%. Both sit well below the US. EU member states had to implement the Pay Transparency Directive by 7 June 2026, which requires employers to tell candidates the starting pay or range before interview, but that does not have to appear in the job ad itself.
• Wide US ranges. In US listings with an annual range, the top of the range was a median 1.32 times the bottom, and 26% of ranges were 50% or wider from bottom to top.

Salary disclosure by country

Countries with at least 400 unique listings in the sample:

Listings marked as remote with no country (4,661) published pay 34.2% of the time, slightly above the overall rate.

What a published range tells you (and what it doesn't)

A range is a starting point, not a promise. Across 566 US listings with an annual pay range, the median spread between the low and high end was $47,220. A posting that says $160,000 to $210,000 is telling you the budget for the role, and where you land inside it depends on level, location and how you negotiate.

For a sense of scale: among US software engineer listings with a published range (86 listings), the median midpoint was $200,000, with the middle half between $169,105 and $249,500. That sample leans toward senior roles, so treat it as a ceiling check rather than a typical offer. Live figures for more roles and cities are on the JobFu salaries pages.

What this means if you're job hunting

1. Don't skip listings without pay. Seven in ten listings in this sample didn't show a salary, so filtering them out shrinks your options sharply.
2. Ask for the range early. In the EU, the directive entitles you to the starting pay or range before interview, and many US states require employers to provide it on request or in the posting. Asking is normal.
3. Use the range to negotiate, not as the answer. With a typical spread of about $47,000 in US ranges, the gap between accepting the first number and making a researched counter can be large. Our salary negotiation guide covers how to do that.

How we measured this

• Sample: job listings that came into JobFu between 14 January and 12 October 2026, through searches run on the platform and JobFu's job data partners. The same job seen more than once was counted once (26,129 unique listings from 33,391 records).
• Salary published: a listing counts as showing pay when it carries a minimum or maximum salary.
• Countries: taken from the listing's country field. Listings with no usable country (about 11,000) count in the overall figure but not the country table.
• Range figures: US listings with an annual range in US dollars, a minimum above $15,000 and a maximum at or above the minimum (566 listings, 553 with a true range).
• Limits: this is the set of jobs JobFu users searched for and JobFu's sources returned, not a census of the job market. It leans toward professional and tech roles. We report rates rather than salary levels for countries outside the US because currency data for those listings is not reliable enough.

You can cite these figures with a link to this page. The underlying salary pages update daily.