job advertisment

xmaslolly76 · 18 June 2006 at 9:57AM

can a company advertise a job at a salary they have no intention of paying. IE job is advertised at 21000 when i know for fact that they will not pay more than 19000 as that is what they are paying everyone else in that particular role and they have told me that they wont pay more ??

lynzpower · 18 June 2006 at 10:20AM

Doesnt mean that they wont pay it to the new person- and expect them not to discuss with others in the team.

I expect they can advertise it at the higher rate, and then say ooh sorry there was a mix up, we only can pay 19, its until the final contracts signed that either side would be like an "invitation to contract" i would have thought

filigree_2 · 19 June 2006 at 1:02AM

I used to work in HR for an employer who advertised jobs with the salary range ie "£16,000 to £19,000" and we used to get applicants who believed they had a chance of getting £19K. The truth was that £19K was the top of the pay scale and you only got that after working for a few years. I did complain to the bosses that it was misleading but they wouldn't change it. We even had people walk out of interviews when they realised they'd have to start at the bottom of the salary range.

I saw an ad recently that said "salary range £16K - £19K, new employees will earn £16K" which was much clearer and more honest.

Maybe in the case you're talking about, the basic is £19K but you have the opportunity to earn more with overtime or bonuses?

xmaslolly76 · 19 June 2006 at 8:27PM

filigree wrote:

I used to work in HR for an employer who advertised jobs with the salary range ie "£16,000 to £19,000" and we used to get applicants who believed they had a chance of getting £19K. The truth was that £19K was the top of the pay scale and you only got that after working for a few years. I did complain to the bosses that it was misleading but they wouldn't change it. We even had people walk out of interviews when they realised they'd have to start at the bottom of the salary range.

I saw an ad recently that said "salary range £16K - £19K, new employees will earn £16K" which was much clearer and more honest.

Maybe in the case you're talking about, the basic is £19K but you have the opportunity to earn more with overtime or bonuses?

This job was not advertised with a wage between 2 figures just showed a flat rate of £21000 so i think this is purposfully misleading applicants and is not fair at all if they have no intension of paying this. i have completly wasted 2days of my holiday attending interviews to find this out i wouldn,t have bothered if i had known.

Astaroth · 20 June 2006 at 11:48AM

Most job adverts do say that it is subject to experience or that it is an OTE figure (dont know what OTE actually stands for).

I guess it also depends on what sort of job it is you are going for. If it is a high volume role then it is understandable to think that all people doing the same job will be on the same pay but if it is a more specialist job then I personally would expect each person to be on an individual salary based on their CVs/ interview skills/ negotiation abilities and any figure quoted would be at the higher end of the scale.

Personally I am happier to see a higher end of the scale figure than the "based on experience" that so many companies use now. Having worked in project management for a couple of years now I have seen salaries for a "project manager" range from £18,000 up to £120,000 and whilst some job descriptions do give an idea of the size of the projects/ length of experience they are requesting so can give you some idea a large proportion dont and so you are totally blind as to where in the scale they are aiming.