Only 36% of professionals believe their company is sufficiently transparent about salaries and pay raises, compared with 64% who believe it is not, according to Hays’ 2026 Salary Market Guide. In light of this, the company highlights pay transparency as a fundamental element to advance toward greater equality and trust in the workplace.
In this context, 68% of organizations do not apply any pay transparency practices with their employees. Among the companies that have advanced in this area, 17% have established criteria for pay raises and 14% publish pay bands by category. By contrast, only 5% maintain full transparency of all salaries by position.
According to Óscar Cebollero, Director of Perm Recruitment Services at Hays Spain, “when we talk about pay equality, it does not mean merely looking at the final outcome and checking what differences exist between colleagues. It is important to understand how the decisions behind each compensation are made: what criteria are used, how each role is valued, or what determines a raise. If these processes are not clear, it is harder to detect potential inequalities and explain to professionals why certain decisions are made.
Pay transparency: a topic still pending
The perception of insufficient remuneration also influences talent mobility. 35% of professionals actively seeking to change jobs do so because they consider their current salary to be too low, while for 67% of respondents, a salary increase would be the most effective measure to regain motivation.
“When a professional doesn’t understand why they earn what they earn or what they have to do to improve their compensation, it’s easy to feel that individual negotiation weighs more than clear criteria. This can generate frustration and end up affecting their trust in the company. Therefore, it is essential to have clear processes and objectives for both sides, in addition to a fluid and ongoing communication,” says the Hays spokesperson.
The European regulatory context is also accelerating the need to review salary management models. The European Salary Transparency Directive (EU 2023/970) establishes new obligations aimed at strengthening pay transparency and facilitating the detection and correction of potential inequities. According to Hays, the real challenge for organizations goes beyond regulatory compliance: transparency requires building coherent pay systems, objective criteria, and communications capable of explaining salary decisions.
In the words of Cebollero: “The European regulation is the starting point to drive cultural change and talent management. Companies should already review how they make pay decisions and, above all, how they explain them. The objective should not be simply to have pay bands or defined criteria; it must go further: ensuring that talent understands what is taken into account and what they can do to advance within the company.”
More transparency to take better talent decisions
A greater pay transparency can also transform the relationship between companies and professionals. For candidates, having more information from the outset allows them to better evaluate an opportunity and approach negotiations with greater knowledge. For companies, clearly explaining their pay criteria can help build trust from the first contact and reinforce their employer value proposition.
However, compensation is only part of what professionals value when choosing where to work and deciding whether to stay in an organization. Beyond gross salary, the factors professionals consider most important in a company are a good work environment (63%), the possibility of remote work (42%), a competitive benefits package (40%), and opportunities for professional development (39%), according to Hays’ 2026 Salary Market Guide.
